Just a quick thank you to the people running the financial blog over at UKMoneypot
I appreciate the link to this site they have given me and I’m happy to return the compliment. It’s a nice blog and I recommend you go have a look there…> UkMoneypot
Mortgage Lending & House Buyers
Figures released today by the British Bankers Association reveal that total lending for the private sector rose by, £9.1bn in April. This is similar to the rise in March but a little below the six monthly average rise. Net mortgage lending rose by £5.0bn which is slightly lower than rises in the previous month and the recent monthly average of £5.4bn.
David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said:
“Lower mortgage demand, weaker deposit growth and little change in personal loans or credit card borrowing all point to people paying more attention to their finances. High house prices and increasing monthly repayment costs are causing a slow down in the mortgage market and people are using money from their accounts instead of borrowing to meet their spending needs.”
Meanwhile the Council Of Mortgage Lenders saw a fall in mortgage lending in April. 9% less than the March figure of £28.8bn but still up on the figure for April 2006 which was £24.4bn. April 2007 was the highest figure on record.
CML Director General Michael Coogan commented:
“Lending is still strong, but it does seem to be stabilising in 2007 following its major growth in 2006. With higher interest rates now beginning to have an impact, the modest slowing in activity that we have been expecting over the rest of the year looks set to materialise. Even so, we continue to expect lending in 2007 to be around 4-5% higher than in 2006.”
Since April we have had another bank rate rise of 0.25% and there is talk of a further rise to come. Interest rate changes are notoriously slow in their effect on both the economy and consumer behaviour. It may well be that there will be no immediate change in borrowing or the housing market but you get a sense that the pips are beginning to squeak a little.
The days of watching house prices rise daily may be coming to an end and the market appears to be stabilising. Whether it will come to a gentle halt or go into reverse at some point is open to debate but it seems extremely unlikely that it wouldn’t reverse.
Any market that has gone through such rapid growth is not likely to just reach a certain point and stop. The market just doesn’t work like that. Far more likely is that it will just get to the point where people can stretch themselves no longer and a significant proportion will drop their attempts to get on the housing ladder and at that point the market will slip back to match demand.
It doesn’t seem so many years ago that the only people who ever needed a paper shredder were banks and secret agents. No one ever thought twice about putting their junk mail straight in the trash. Un read, unexamined and unwanted. These days things are different. It sometimes feel like everyone is after getting your personal details and scamming you.
It’s not true, of course. The vast majority of people are genuine enough and 99.9% of people wouldn’t have a clue how to clone your identity even if they wanted to but there are a significant number of people who would. They will take advantage of any opportunity to make money and if it’s your money that’s fine by them.
So how much care do you take of the junk credit card applictions you get through the post? Do you just chuck them in the trash or maybe tear them in half first? Do you think that is secure?
Think again. I found this report on the cockeyed site and frankly it’s shocking. I cannot believe that the credit card companies could be as trusting/stupid/foolish as this.
Read it and worry. If you want some advice on avoiding Identity Theft have a look at this site:…Preventing Identity Theft
