Mortgage Arrears for the first half of 2010

We expected a 10% increase in mortgage arrears for the first half of this year, moving the total from 32,321 households to 35,531, however it increased 10.73% and the final figure was  36,438 [statistics for the last four quarters are below].

There is an ongoing inability for banks to deal effectively with people in arrears, both in terms of having the operational capacity or liquidity to offer debt relief in some form, and on the other side we have the Financial Regulator who is incrementally stripping away their power to enforce the mortgage via repossessions.

The arrears of the second half 2010 will go up again, there is no sign of either a slowing growth in arrears, or of a slow down in the rate of growth.

The only growth area in our economy at present seems to be in the deterioration of debt quality . . . but for the second half of the year it will not only be an ‘unemployment’ lead increase, rather it will be with the additional impact of lenders creating the problem via mortgage …

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How a bank might undo your tracker mortgage

‘I have a tracker mortgage so I don’t care’ a man recently said to me when I was talking about the near definite increase in margins that we will start to see in mortgages as lenders seek margin and reprice risk.

It was almost said in a smug manner, a kind of ‘yeah, times are hard but I have my tracker mortgage’, and then it struck me, most banks have a get out clause, they don’t have to use it, but they might. So I thought it might be interesting to point out exactly how this could come about, and essentially the relationship it has with falling property values, so if your lender ever calls you out of the blue asking you to let a valuer into your gaff be sure to say ‘no’.

The way that trackers could be wholesale removed from borrowers is via an up to date valuation where the tracker rate is connected to the loan to value (LTV) of the property, many tracker mortgages only …

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What is the mortgage market like lately?

People ask me ‘how is business’ a lot, is it macabre fascination or do they want to hear something reassuring? I don’t know, but my general answer is ‘can we talk about something happy?!’. There are so many intermediaries that have shut down that on many levels (I feel I speak for the entire firm on this) we feel privileged to still be operating through the downturn. While we all know that there is a crisis, and we are reminded of it every day, I think it is worth considering the changes that have occurred in the mortgage market in the last year,with an emphasis on 2009.

Mortgage debt is decreasing: Our total ‘indebtedness’ on the mortgage market is coming down, we are deleveraging as a society. This is happening as people start to shun debt and fear the forward commitments of borrowing, in the same way that companies and funds have been deleveraging, everyday people are doing the same. In the past, recessions generally had a large debt element to …

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Apply for a mortgage, one buyers story

Today’s post is brought to you buy Keith Sheeran, it is a clients story on the mortgage process, sometimes in industry we spend so much time on one side of the table that we forget what it is like to be on the other, this post is a good reminder (for brokers) of what it is like for our clients when they deal with us…. I was a little dubious about applying for a mortgage, but my father has just retired and he said that he would give me some money as a deposit to help buy a house.

When I heard this I must admit that I was delighted. I was half tempted to go to the nearest VW garage and buy that convertible I have always wanted. However, sense prevailed, and I was quickly reminded by my Dad that the money was for a deposit only. Whilst everyone is giving out about the property market, I understand there is really good value out there and I would be getting …

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