Brickonomics

The stagnant housing market: More a problem of first-time movers than first-time buyers

First-time buyers are increasingly becoming trapped in their first-time homes and unable to move on to homes that better suit their needs. That at least is the implication of some figures that caught my eye recently when I was looking...

Posted by Brian on November 10, 2009 8:41 PM

House building figures show huge jump in starts and completions

There were two big boosts in the numbers released today for house builders. First, the latest Government data on homes built in England are by far the best for more than a year with a massive leap in the quarter...

Posted by Brian on August 20, 2009 11:45 AM

CML provides further evidence of the housing market becoming more buoyant

The Council of Mortgage Lenders today adds yet more weight to the view that the housing market is in a period of stability if not growth. Its June figures show a 23% increase in the number of home loans over...

Posted by Brian on August 11, 2009 10:03 AM

Housing market medicine working, says CML

The latest forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders paints a more positive outlook for the housing market than it did when it last forecast in December. It now thinks repossessions this year will hit 65,000, 10,000 fewer than previously...

Posted by Brian on June 22, 2009 1:49 PM

Homes sales continued to perk up in April, but it's too early to call it a recovery

The official figures for property transactions will make comforting reading in April for those selling homes. They seem consistent with the prevailing view that the housing market, in terms of sales and not prices, is showing some signs of bouncing...

Posted by Brian on May 22, 2009 9:47 AM

Mortgage lending at 2001 level spells more bad news for home sales

Mortgage lending last year was down about 30% on the 2007 figures and in the final quarter was running at well below half the peak level, according to the latest figures from Council of Mortgage Lenders. CML expects the level...

Posted by Brian on January 21, 2009 11:50 AM

If 2008 was bad for the housing market, 2009 looks much worse

There are plenty of scary figures in the latest forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders not least the expectation that half a million homeowners will fall into arrears. The expectation that 75,000 homes will be repossessed by mortgage lenders...

Posted by Brian on December 18, 2008 5:52 PM

Repossessions may be worse than in the 1990s crash

The ubiquitous Robert Peston in his blog suggests that the Council of Mortgage Lenders has advised ministers that repossessions could rise to 75,000 next year. That would mean a return to the bleak days of the early 1990s when repossessions...

Posted by Brian on December 3, 2008 4:18 PM

Is the frozen housing market beginning to thaw?

Looking at the most recently released housing market data for October it is tempting to interpret it as showing signs of a thaw in a market that has almost frozen solid. On the month transactions rose according to the revenue...

Posted by Brian on November 21, 2008 12:31 PM

Is buy-to-let really screwed? No, according to the figures. But...

What is all this about the "particularly hard-hit buy-to-let market" I keep hearing about in reports about the demise of Bradford & Bingley? The thing is, I tend to follow the figures a bit and was not aware of any...

Posted by Brian on September 29, 2008 2:00 PM

Time to price in the cost of losing skills in a housing crash

Until the realisation of the enormity of the task was grasped those at home and those on the way to the front comforted themselves with the line: "It'll be all over by Christmas." That was WW1. How much of this...

Posted by Brian on September 9, 2008 12:44 PM

When even the good news is bad news you know it's time to take cover

A massive leap in retail sales. Excellent news surely. But no. Even if you are in the shopfitting business, this is does not make comfortable reading. On figures like these the markets are pricing in interest rate rises. This reaction...

Posted by Brian on June 19, 2008 10:43 AM

Thousands of homebuyers in negative equity

Figures provided to the BBC by the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that 23,000 homebuyers took out 100% mortgages in the 12 months to March this year. With house prices as measured by HBOS (Halifax) back to the level of...

Posted by Brian on June 10, 2008 12:51 PM

A fall but no collapse in buy-to-let borrowers

The latest figures on buy-to let mortgages from the Council of Mortgages Lenders do provide some comfort for house builders tackling an increasingly tough market. There were fears that buy-to-let borrowing would collapse with the first whiff of a slowdown...

Posted by Brian on May 22, 2008 9:34 AM

Council of Mortgage Lenders forecasts house prices to fall by 7%

As a new consensus appears to be forming that house prices will fall between 5% and 10% this year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has updated its forecast for house price growth with a prediction of a 7% fall. CML...

Posted by Brian on May 21, 2008 11:37 AM

Is private house building heading for its worst ever recorded downturn?

The latest Government house building figures appear to add weight to growing fears that unless there is a dramatic turnaround in fortunes the number of private homes built this year could fall by a quarter or more. A fall of...

Posted by Brian on May 16, 2008 8:45 AM

Slowing lending points to worsening housing market

There was little joy in today's release of the Council of Mortgage Lenders March figures for lending, as they reinforced data pointing to a weakening housing market. Lending was up 5% on February, but the normal 20% March jump was...

Posted by Brian on April 18, 2008 11:08 AM