British Mortgage Debt Fell in Q1 of 2010
New figures have revealed that the total mortgage debt in Britain was reduced by £3.2 billion during the first three months of 2010.
The statistics also showed that people were continuing to concentrate on paying off their loans rather than resorting to taking capital from their homes. This is because the number of people who increased their loans was negative for the eight month in a row.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, told The Independent: "The eighth successive, and still marked, net injection of housing equity in the first quarter of 2010 is the consequence of the ongoing desire of many people to improve their personal balance sheets."
Mr Archer added: "Furthermore, extremely low savings interest rates have made it much more attractive for many people to use any spare funds that they have to reduce their mortgages." Since the second quarter of 2008, UK property owners have, in fact, paid off a total of £38.3 billion from their mortgages, according to statistics released from the Bank of England.
However, there have been signs showing that this trend is set to change over the coming months. This prediction was based on the fact that the actual rate that people paid back their property loans had been reduced for the fourth month in a row.
Figures showed that the amount of £3.2 billion that was paid back in the first quarter compared with £3.43 billion in the final quarter of 2009, and it is the second lowest figure since the repayment trend began.
Mortgages news posted by Marilyn on 15 July 2010
