House sales, mortgage levels and stamp duty

What is happening to our economy?

House sales, mortgage levels and stamp duty are three main subjects on the minds of most people in the UK. With the current state of the economy, how are they coping and what does the future hold.

The bank of England shows that mortgage approval levels have dropped to their lowest level since June 2011, fuelling predictions of further property price falls.

A two year stamp duty concession for first time buyers that finished on the 24^th of March showed no change to the sharp dip in approvals.

In February there were 48,986 loan approvals that were worth £7.1 billion, this is almost 9,000 fewer than in January.

Nationwide announced that house prices had a monthly fall of 1% in March which was the same day the Bank of England report was published.

Remortgage approvals also were reduced to 27,940 last month, totalling £3.8 billion, after remortgage loans worth £4.3 billion were approved in both the previous two months.

In addition to this the figures show that credit card lending was mainly unchanged in February, however loans rose by £400 million.

The Building Societies Association (BSA) said new mortgage approvals were up 31% on February last year and up by 29% this year, with £2.2 billion-worth of mortgage approvals in February.

Overall household finance remains under pressure, alongside rising unemployment, declining incomes andPPI scandles. The British public face hard times, but hopefully are out of the worst of it. No one knows if this will hold, so borrowers may like to consider whether now is the time to make their move on some seriously tempting rates.

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