Years ago we expected it, madness is contagious and everyone caught the bug. These days it is rarer but this week we have had a case of madness of the highest order, the very highest order in fact. What am I talking about? House prices of course. Just a little bit of background. During the boom years up to 2006 it wasn't unusual to be phoned by an owner of a property to increase the price of their property because prices were rising. The fact that we hadn't sold their property at a price of X euros didn't seem to worry them when changing that price to X Euros + 10% or more. However it could sort of be justified from the sellers' point of view despite my protestations.  This week however we are not on a boom as far as I know.  A couple of weeks ago we went to see a property in La Pobla. It was good. A nice semi detached place with its own gardens and a shared area with swimming pool and common facilities. It was a good price at 150k but probably needed to drop maybe 10k to sell it. Imagine our surprise therefore when we phoned up to show it yesterday to hear that the owner wanted to increase the price... to 210k because, and I quote, "Los Precios Están Subiendo". Prices are rising? Not as far as I know and certainly not by 40% in two weeks.  Guess what? It won't be going on the site of course.  There will be others.