‘MORE than half of homeowners would be worried about meeting their mortgage payments if interest rates rise, a survey by Direct Line has revealed.
They said they would be under pressure even if payments went up by £100 a month or less, yet many admitted they would take no action to combat the rise. Only 3% […]
‘MANY elderly householders can find themselves in dire financial straits because their pension income does not provide an adequate living standard.
But there is a way out and it can come from the bricks and mortar they are living in, through an equity release scheme. But care has to be taken before anyone decides to go […]
MSN Money has a good article on being realistic with your purchase of real estate:
‘Thirty years ago, first-time home buyers were often encouraged to stretch as far as they possibly could to buy a house. Back then, that advice made some sense.
Today, it can be a recipe for disaster.
A too-big house payment can, at the […]
‘One good thing you can say about the pundits who keep predicting that the end is near for rising home prices: They’re consistent. They’ve been dead wrong year after year.
Despite their near-certainty that the market would cool in 2004, median U.S. home prices rose 9%, and a vast majority of cities saw a bigger increase […]
‘The number of mortgage approvals for home purchase plunged 20 per cent between October and November, the leading high street banks said.
The fall took the annual decline to 41 per cent compared with November 2003, according to the British Bankers’ Association.
It said the volume of remortgaging and equity withdrawal also fell, providing more evidence the […]
‘The CML believes that housing market analysts who are predicting a crash are mistaken.
In its new forecasts for 2005-2007, published yesterday, the CML expects the recent slowdown to continue, but believes this will be felt mostly through lower numbers of transactions rather than in any widespread price reductions.
However, these predictions stand at odds with recent […]
‘An Englishman’s home is his castle. Now, seemingly, it’s becoming his cash cow for old age too. Indeed, nearly three quarters of homeowners are relying on home equity to fund old age, although half of them will still have a mortgage as OAPs. So says Abbey in a new report.
House prices, for example, have risen […]
‘Figures from the Bank of England have shown that mortgage approvals in October fell to their lowest level in almost five years.
Overall, lending to individuals dropped to its weakest increase since November 2002, at £9.07 billion, down sharply from the £11.66 billion increase recorded in the same month last year.
The number of mortgages approved was […]
‘The deputy governor of the Bank of England, economists from Deutsche Bank and Barclays, and research company Hometrack were all queuing up last week to predict that house prices would fall - with 20 per cent providing a rough rule-of-thumb measure of the overvaluation.
The statistics now seem to be bearing that out. The British Bankers […]
‘Two leading analysts at Deutsche Bank have warned that house prices may slump by up to 15 per cent in 2005.
In a note distributed to investors, Ciaran Barr and George Buckley argued that the Bank of England would have to start lowering interest rates next year to avoid further price drops.
Commenting on the prediction, Mr […]