Key local figures show there's been a 14.5 per cent average increase in house prices in West Lothian in the past year, but some experts say parts of the market may yet fall by 30 per cent below the 2007 high, before rallying by the end of the next decade.

But one Linlithgow estate agent says that local figures are actually bearing up well and he doesn't recognise that gloomy prediction.

Ken Lutton, area sales director with Right Move, said that any average only reflected the houses sold that quarter and should not be seen as a market price movement.

For more information see the Journal and Gazette out on February 5, 2010.

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