Brickonomics

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 in the US sold for $1,000, will we see like here?

An article on CNN money caught my eye. It seems that homes in areas of the US hardest hit by foreclosures (repossession) are being dumped at throw away prices. At these prices you could practically buy up a neighbourhood for...

Posted by Brian on January 8, 2009 2:30 PM

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

Why record low interest rates will fail to ease house building woes

The Bank of England's decision to cut interest rates to just 2% today, the lowest in its 300 plus years, will come as a relief to some. But in reality the Bank is near powerless to influence the direction of...

Posted by Brian on December 4, 2008 1:47 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

The Chancellor's measures are not exceptional enough

I can but agree with the Chancellor that these are exceptional times and they require exceptional measures. My complaint, as I have said before, is that it took rather too long for the bulk of the political establishment to accept...

Posted by Brian on November 24, 2008 5:53 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

US are repossessing more homes per head than the UK is building

Now here is a thought. Over the past months, the rate of foreclosures (repossession) per head of population in the US has been running ahead of the rate of new homes built per head of population in the UK. I...

Posted by Brian on October 23, 2008 10:34 AM

Rich ditch their homes as US plays celebrity foreclosures

Bored with the subprime homesick blues, the US press has turned to tracking down the rich who have handed back the keys on their multimillion dollar homes. It's "celebrity foreclosures" folks! That couldn't possibly happen here......

Posted by Brian on June 30, 2008 5:09 PM

More gloom for US housing market

Confidence in the US housing market has been further dented by a sharp rise in foreclosure (repossessions) in May according to RealtyTrac figures....

Posted by Brian on June 13, 2008 10:23 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

Meanwhile... housing market gets gloomier over the pond

If the RICS housing market survey has failed to provide enough gloom, here's the story from across the Atlantic. Foreclosures (repossessions) in March up 57% on the same month a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure...

Posted by Brian on April 15, 2008 10:42 AM