UK: Mortgage Arrears And Repossessions Booming
The number of UK homes falling three months behind on their mortgages rose by 8.2 per cent over the last quarter, while the number of repossessions was up by 12 per cent.
Data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show in the three months to the end of September 1.44 per cent of mortgages – or 168,000 homes - were at least three months in arrears.
The CML now predicts the level of homeowners falling into arrears will top 170,000 by the end of the year – ahead of earlier predictions.
Some 54,100 mortgages are six to 12 months in arrears and 20,200 were over 12 months behind on their mortgages.
A total of 11,300 homes were repossessed over the three months – and a total of 45,000 repossessions are now predicted for 2008.
Nationwide Warns Of More Housing Gloom
Britain's biggest building society, the Nationwide, says it expects house prices to continue to fall in 2009/10.
Its comments came as it said underlying pre-tax profits for the six months to 30 September were down 18% to £322m.
The society's mortgage lending to homebuyers slid almost 17 per cent to £10.9 billion during the same period. Its net residential lending volumes crumbled from £3.6 billion to £1 billion.
Its bad debts rose to £74m, up from £62m last year, as borrowers struggled with their repayments.
Unlike some other high street lenders, Nationwide is passing on the benefits of last week's 1.5% cut in base rates onto its customers.
UK: Yet More Housing Gloom
Hopes that the UK property market may be stabilising have been dashed by data revealing house prices slumped 2.2% last month, the biggest drop since May.
Prices, which fell 1.3% in September, are now 15% lower than last year at a seasonally adjusted £168,176, the largest drop since the series began in 1983.
"Housing market conditions remain challenging in the face of the significant pressures on householders' incomes and the reduction in the availability of mortgage finance since last summer," said Halifax chief economist Martin Ellis.
UK House Sales Down By More Than Half Year-On-Year
Property sales in the UK have fallen by 53% in the past year, according to the latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs.
In September, 59,000 homes were sold, down from 126,000 sales in the same month last year. That was also a 62% fall from the recent peak in sales, of 154,000, seen in December 2006.
This year, the credit crunch has driven the housing market into its sharpest slowdown for decades.
UK: Mortgage approvals 'at new low'
UK mortgage lending by the major banks fell to a record low in August, with approvals for house purchases 64% lower than a year ago.
The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said that 21,086 mortgages had been approved for house purchases, down from 58,564 in August last year.
The BBA said that falling property prices and the state of the economy would continue to have an impact.
UK Mortgage Lending Continues To Slump
Mortgage lending continued its downward spiral in August, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
The total value of new lending was £21.8bn, down by 12% from July and 36% lower than in August last year.
The combination of dear money and falling property values is crushing the market for home loans and, more worrying, the decline in lending is speeding up, according to the CML figures.
UK Home Sales Slump To Lowest In 30 Years
The slump in the UK property market continued in August, with some estate agents selling fewer than one home per week in the past three months.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said sales were at their lowest level since its monthly survey started in 1978.
It said prices picked up slightly for the fourth month in a row, but were still sharply down on a year ago.
Rics said the continued shortage of mortgage funds was "stifling" buyers.
UK July Mortgage Approvals Lowest On Record
The number of new mortgages approved for home buyers fell in July to just 33,000 - down by 71% on a year ago.
The figures from the Bank of England are a new record low and highlight the sharp slump in mortgage lending in the course of the past year.
The credit crunch has forced banks and building societies to ration their lending to only their most creditworthy borrowers.
The value of home loans in July was 3.23 billion pounds compared to 9.35 billion pounds in July 2007.
Bank lending to all mortgage borrowers, whether moving house or not, shrank by £12.1bn in July - far and away the biggest monthly contraction on record.
The collapse in business by specialist lenders other than banks and building societies, such as those specialising in sub-prime mortgages, is also illustrated by the Bank of England's figures.
In July 2007 these lenders gave out 32,000 mortgages for house purchase; in July 2008 they lent just 2,000.
Manufacturing also contracted for a fourth month in a row as the economy staggered toward a recession.
The pound dipped to $1.80006 on the figures, the lowest since April 2006 and to its lowest level ever against the euro of 81.36 pence.
Taylor Wimpey Woes Building
Troubled Taylor Wimpey plc, the U.K.'s largest homebuilder, reported first half losses of 1.42 billion pounds Wednesday morning after writing down the value of land and said it remains in talks with banks to avoid breaching loan terms.
Shares in the company fell to 44 pence following the news before recovering slightly to 46 pence, marking a fall of 77 percent since the turn of the year.
U.K. house prices fall; consumer gloom deepens
LONDON (MarketWatch) - The British housing market continued to stagnate in June, while consumer confidence slipped neared an all-time low amid a darkening economic outlook, according to two separate surveys released Monday.
Hometrack's monthly house price survey found average prices dropped by 1% in June for the ninth consecutive monthly decline. Compared to June 2007, prices were down 3.2% and are off 2.5% since the beginning of the year.
Separately, the GfK NOP Index, a measure of consumer confidence, fell five points to -34, from -29 in May, and near the lowest level ever recorded. Confidence in the economic outlook over the next 12 months fell to a record low of -45 from -39 in May. GfK NOP, a consulting firm, conducts the survey on behalf of the European Commission.
The Hometrack survey echoed other studies that have found the number of housing transactions have shrunk as potential buyers stay away due to the credit crunch.
"New buyer registrations were down 5.7% in June and have now fallen by 52% since the start of the credit crunch," said Richard Donnell, Hometrack's director of research, in a news release.
"This drop in volumes was always possible as around half of all transactions in recent years have been driven by aspirational or non-needs-based movers who are now sitting on their hands," he said.
The drop in transaction volumes threatens to reach levels not seen since the 1970s, Donnell said.
The survey found sellers are now receiving 91.6% of their asking prices, down from 92.3% in May and the lowest level since the series began in 2001. A year ago, sellers were receiving 95.6% of their asking prices.
Meanwhile, it's no surprise consumers are growing increasingly gloomy about their economic prospects, said Rachael Joy, a member of the consumer confidence team at GfK NOP.
"With rising inflation, gloomy forecasts for interest rates and soaring fuel, utility and food prices dominating the front page headlines, it's no surprise that confidence in the general economy is almost in freefall," she said. "It seems unlikely that this trend will reverse in the near future."
