From The [London] Times:

[S]hares and house prices have ended this year considerably higher than they began, despite all the horror stories.

In America, the Dow Jones is 7 per cent higher than 12 months ago, having hit a record as recently as October 9. The FTSE 100 is up 5 per cent and Germany’s DAX has gained no less than 23 per cent and is near its all-time high, having fully recovered the losses of July and August. In Asia, stock markets are all far above levels before the credit crisis, with Hong Kong up 40 per cent on the year and Shanghai up 70 per cent. Only in Japan have asset prices substantially fallen... .

Property markets, too, have faired much better that one might imagine, at least outside America. Last week, Nationwide said its [U. K.] house-price index fell for a second consecutive month in December and most analysts (including me) expect the market to get a lot worse. But it’s the strength, not weakness, of house prices in 2007 that is most remarkable. Nationwide’s figure is 5 per cent higher than a year ago, even after the recent falls.

As of the end of the 3rd quarter, US house prices were up 1.79 percent from a year earlier. (Source: Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (who knew such a thing existed?)), News Release, 11/29/07.