Sep
27
High LTV mortgages will become more expensive according to Nationwide
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In a short and to the point sentence, the Nationwide has summed up the new situation for mortgage borrowers following the recent credit crunch problems “From now on risk must have its price” This is what they mean by this statement: High loan to value (LTV) mortgages, which are inherently more risky than those with [...]
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26
Barratt Developments, one of the largest house builders in the UK, is warning that house prices may fall in the short term as a result of the recent interest rate rises and a squeeze on credit resulting from the recent problems with Northern Rock. This is a quote from the Barratt Chief Executive: “The recent [...]
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25
Crack down on self certification mortgages
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Self certification mortgages sound a great idea. Tell the mortgage company that you are earning more than you actually are and you have access to bigger mortgages, even though the monthly payments may be close, or even exceed monthly take home pay. Much of the buy to let market is fuelled by self certification mortgages [...]
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24
The Toyota Prius – why I won’t buy one
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I know that the title of this post sounds bad – after all we should all do our bit for the environment and I do care about my own carbon footprint. There are many environmental benefits to hybrid cars, and we published an article about some of the ways in which the Toyota Prius can [...]
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21
Changes are afoot in the loans industry at the moment. The credit crunch and recent difficulties experienced by Northern Rock is starting to have an effect. I’m hearing rumours that two lenders are withdrawing from the loans market altogther. I can’t say which ones at the moment as I’m not sure if they have announced [...]
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20
The news that Abbey is considering providing 100 percent mortgages again got me thinking about how sensible they are at the moment. The Abbey know what they are doing and take a sensible approach to lending but I personally wouldn’t feel confident in taking out a 100 percent mortgage in the current house market. After [...]
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19
House prices to remain flat in 2008
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The Royal Institution of Surveyors (RICS) is predicting that house prices will be flat in 2008 and there is a ten percent chance of them suffering a 1990′s style crash. It is the effect of recent interest rates rises that will subdue the property market, rather than the recent turmoil in the banking industry, according [...]
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18
Let’s celebrate some good financial news today as inflation has fallen slightly to 1.8 percent. As that is below the governments self imposed threshold of 2 percent, it is safe to assume that interest rates will not rise for the foreseeable future. In fact the next move for interest rates may well be downwards, though [...]
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17
Northern Rock crisis forces government to make unprecedented fund guarantees
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I wonder if the the news that the government is willing to guarantee all the deposits at Northern Rock is about helping the stricken bank out or about stopping the rot spreading throughout the UK banking system. With shares in Alliance and Leicester being badly hit in the last half hour of trading – they [...]
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17
“Your money is safe” says Adam Applegarth, the Chief Executive of Northern Rock, but with people queuing for hours out side Northern Rock branches, desperate to withdraw their savings, what he says and what his customers fear, are worlds apart. One person I saw interviewed on the TV news just now had been trying to [...]
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