Mortgages double during December 2008
The Bank of England have reported that mortgage lending doubled during December 2008 to £1.9 Billion from £834 million. This is only a quarter of the figure for December 2007 but shows how changable the market is, the numbers of approved mortgages doubled from a record low of 27,000 to 60,000.
Everyone will have seen on the news and media this week that the IMF (International Monetry Fund) have stated that the UK will be hardest hit from any major country in the coming recession due to its involvement in the finance crisis and the subsequent bail out packages that have been made. Most developed countries are expected to contract by 2%, the prediction for the UK is 2.8%. Gordon Brown pledged another £200 Billion to prop up the economy this week.
The other major story of this week has been that buyers are now entering the market again, looking for bargains. Make no bones about it with a buyers market there are loads of bargains to be had if you search long enough and you know the market well enough. If you know a particular area is strong and you see fixed prices on the market for a while you could be onto a bargain. For all the doom and gloom, buyers just have to be a little bit more conservative about paying no more that (the current) market value for a home no matter how much they love the property and maximising what you get for your properties. The days for viewing a property and entering a bidding war are over, you have to have a absolute figure in mind based on the area, the property and the market and stick to your guns.
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