I’ve just read an article on popular UK personal finance site www.thisismoney.co.uk with the headline ‘The House That Lost 40% in Four Months‘. Sounds ominous doesn’t it. The headline suggests that a house has decreased by 40% in value in just four months. But it hasn’t! Firstly, house prices you see in estate agents are not usually the prices buyers pay. Estate agents will always inflate the true value of the property slightly so that after some negotiating the vendor gets the price they actually wanted and the buyer thinks they’ve got a good deal. Someone I know recently paid £205,000
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Monthly Archives June 2008
Free Budget Planner – I’m Spending How Much?!
PIN money’s great isn’t it? That surplus bit of money you have each month you know you could quite happily fritter away on needless expenses, just because you can. As long as the bills are paid the rest is the hard earned cash that makes it all worth while and we use it to enjoy ourselves. But sometimes, it’s just not there. I could have sworn there was another £100 in the bank…. Sound familiar? When you’re certain you had more than there is, do you know where it went? Open the Free Budget Planner Have you been spending beyond your
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Save the World – Eat Less Meat & Cycle More
I’m what is known as a ‘pescatarian’. I don’t eat meat apart from fish. I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan but I do try to only eat fish from sustainable resources or farms (if you shop at Waitrose, that’s all they sell…). I don’t make a fuss when I go to friends BBQ’s and I don’t ever try to force my way of eating or thinking onto anyone else. Strangely, it’s the other way around. My friends often offer me meat and make little jokes about it. After years of outwitting them though, most of my friends leave well alone
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Up, Up and Away
More movement in the mortgage market sees more rates rise and some disappear (for the time being). Newcastle Building Society has increased all fixed rate products by 0.3% For each £100,000 borrowed that equates to an extra £25 per month in interest charged. Lloyds TSB has increased all Buy-to-Let fixed rate mortgages by 0.3% increasing the amount of rental required by the same £25 per month. If the estimated rental potential of a buy-to-let property purchase can’t support this increase then fewer proposals will fit the required model and Lloyds TSB are likely to do less business. Platform (the intermediary lender of Britannia Building
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The Eye of the Mortgage Storm or the Aftermath?
Imagine deciding to pursue a career in the mortgage industry…. A few months of studying, revision and exams followed by several weeks of ‘feet-finding’ and ‘on the job’ learning. Only to end up in an industry bearing the brunt of the now infamous ‘credit crunch’. Why do these thing always happen to me! OK, I know, there are lots of people facing adversity in a changing marketplace and every mortgage broker, every homeowner and every prospective buyer has had to re-think their position and change tack. But are things starting to settle? It’s been a few days now since any lenders have
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