Owner: Ray Boulger's Blog URL:http://www.charcol.co.uk/knowledge-resources/ray-boulgers-blog/ Join Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 03:34:43 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Ray Boulger is widely renowned as the guru of the mortgage industry and expert on the housing market. Ray is constantly called upon by the media to provide informed comment on all areas of the market, and is a regular on the BBC, Sky and ITV.
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Emergency Rate Cut at the Fed 2008-01-22 16:50:00 The full statement issued today by the US Federal Reserve on the reasons for the emergency cut in... Read more:Emergency
A landmark in the money markets today 2008-01-14 15:00:00 A landmark in the money markets was achieved today. For the first time since the start of the...
Alistair Darling's new mortgage Review - the good news and the bad news 2008-04-09 14:19:00 Alistair Darling was interviewed on the Today programme this morning and announced that he was appointing Sir James Crosby, ex HBOS chief executive, to chair a Review examining how to boost confidence in the rapidly shrinking mortgage market. He said "Mr Crosby will talk with the Bank of England and the FSA to see if we can get more money into the system."
The good news:
The Chancellor said “we want to move quite quickly. I do think it is important that we take measures to help people get through what is undoubtedly a difficult period."
The bad news:
"I have asked him to report back this summer."
So although Mr Darling recognises the urgency of the problem he thinks a report in the summer, which no doubt means the end of summer, i.e. September, is good enough.
Having been Chief Executi Read more:Alistair
Irresponsible investing is the main problem 2008-04-21 11:51:00 In yesterday's "Sunday Programme" on GMTV Vince Cable repeated his claim that the current problems in the UK mortgage market have been caused by "irresponsible lending." He is wrong about this and it is disappointing that a senior politician who is also an economist doesn't understand that the real cause of the problem is very different.
Although "iresponsible lending" by UK lenders might be a tiny part of the problem, the amount of "irresponsible lending" in the UK is small and indeed if that was the extent of the problem it would have been easily containable. The latest statistics produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) demonstrate this clearly. They show that at the end of last year just 1.2% of UK mortgages were in arrears by at least 3 months and although I expect some incr
Earl Shilton Building Society breaks a record! 2008-04-23 09:55:00 Earl Shilton BuildingSociety
has announced today it is cutting its standard variable rate by a parsimonious 0.05% to 7.35%.
Although several lenders have still not announced any cut at all in their SVR following this month’s 0.25% reduction in bank rate one has to wonder whether it is really worth the admin effort to cut by just 0.05%. Even Northern Rock has managed a 0.1% cut!
A cut of 0.05% must be a record for the smallest SVR cut of any lender for a very long time, and possibly ever, and at 7.35% Earl Shilton’s SVR is now one of the highest of any lender, let alone any building society! Read more:Earl
, breaks
Halifax cuts some rates! 2008-05-20 08:00:00 From tomorrow Halifax are reducing their 3 and 5 year Product Transfer fixed rates by 0.1 or 0.2% and their 3 year tracker rate by 0.2%. In addition they are increasing the maximum loan size on the tracker up to 75% LTV from £500,000 to £2m.
These Product Transfer rates are only available to existing customers coming to the end of a deal but I think Halifax will have a very large number of borr
HSBC puts two fingers up at the Chancellor 2008-06-27 09:19:00 HSBC have repriced upwards their Rate Matcher mortgage, i.e. the remortgage only product where they offer for a further 2, 3 or 5 years the same fixed rate borrowers have been paying, but with a variable fee, depending on the actual interest rate, the size of the mortgage and the new fixed rate term required.
They have increased the minimum pay rate by 0.25% to 4.79% and the maximum fee is double Read more:Chancellor
Some good news at last from the banking sector 2008-06-23 17:14:00 Clive Cowdery, who made an estimated £150m profit from the sale this year of his Resolution vehicle to Pearl Group after buying up and consolidating closed with profit funds from several insurance companies after the dot.com bubble burst, has now turned his attention to Bradford & Bingley, with a view to trying a similar trick in the bankingsector
.
His advances, to control a 49% stake in B&B, ha
To Fix or Track? 2008-06-19 16:28:00 This week has seen the release of a whole raft of statistics and other information which will have a strong bearing on the path of Bank Rate over the next few months.
The CPI figures for May were slightly worse than expected at an annual rate of 3.3%. Breeching 3% triggered the requirement for Mervyn King to write his second letter to Alistair Darling to explain why the Bank of England had failed Read more:Track
Abbey's administration under fire 2008-07-05 16:57:00 In her "Jessica Investigates" page of today's Daily Telegraph Jessica Gorst-Williams replies to 7 readers' letters complaining about financial institutions. Of these over 50% (4 to be precise) were complaints about Abbey
.
I cannot recall ever previously seeing such a high proportion of letters in either one of Jessica's columns, or the similar columns in any other paper, complaining about just on
Lender increases Standard Variable Rate 2008-07-04 13:01:00 We have seen some interesting pricing moves in the mortgage market over the last couple of days – some good news and some bad but more good than bad.
Dunfermline B S has increased its SVR by 0.15% to 7.29% and introduced a 1% Early Repayment Charge for 1 year for any new mortgages taken out on this rate. However, at least they are still accepting new applications for their SVR, whereas Bank of S Read more:Lender
, Standard
, Variable
OPEC President appears to think oil is a less attractive investment 2008-07-03 15:52:00 Yesterday Dr Chakib Khelil, president of Opec, the oil producers’ cartel, told the BBC that a rise in the European Central Bank (ECB) rate today would cause the dollar to weaken further against the euro, thus making oil a more attractiveinvestment
.
If Mr Khelil wants to talk his book he should learn a little more about what makes currency markets tick before making comments like this. As widel Read more:President
, think
Only 50% of Lenders Expect Defaults to Increase in the 3rd Quarter! 2008-07-03 11:43:00 The Bank of England's (BofE’s) second quarterly Credit Conditions Survey was conducted between 27 May and 18 June and in one question lenders were asked to report their actual experience over the previous three months and their prediction for the following quarter on the level of defaults on mortgage loans.
47.3% of lenders reported default rates increased in the second quarter, sharply higher t Read more:Lenders
, Expect
, Defaults
Its Good News Week 2008-07-25 11:31:00 For the last 3 weeks we have seen a steady stream of lenders cutting rates and there are more today, as detailed below. We are in a very different ball game to the first 6 months of the year, with lenders now actually competing for business, whereas until a month ago they were competing to avoid business! Fixed rates are being cut because of the fall in swap rates, e.g. 0.7% on 2 year swaps, since
More Good News on the Mortgage Front 2008-07-22 04:52:00 On Thursday Bank of Ireland will reduce the rates on all their mortgages by between 0.25% and 0.7%. They currently only offer 3 and 5 year fixed rates.
They are one of the few lenders still offering 95% mortgages, albeit only on their 1start scheme, which is aimed at First Time Buyers and requires a parent to go on the mortgage with the son or daughter. The rate on this deal, a 3 year fix, is bein Read more:Mortgage
, Front
When is a 5 year old flat a new build property? 2008-07-16 14:31:00 Answer. If you are thinking its when the description is being written by an over zealous estate agent you would be wrong. That would in any case contravene the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991.
However, mortgage lenders aren’t subject to this Act (except when selling a repossessed property
) and from 18 July First National’s definition of new build flats will include properties that are up to
Nationwide slashes fixed and tracker rates 2008-07-16 09:51:00 If you thought yesterday’s UK CPI figures, up from May’s 3.3% to 3.8% p.a. (compared to a consensus forecast from economists of 3.6%) were bad take a look at the US CPI announced today. Consumer prices in the US increased by a massive 1.1% in June, the biggest monthly gain in 26 years, and after a 0.6% increase in May. This takes the annual inflation rate to a 17-year high of 5.0%, compared wi Read more:Nationwide
What does Santander's bid for Alliance & Leicester mean to borrowers? 2008-07-14 11:13:00 Alliance & Leicester’ (A&L) proposed take over by Santander
is bad news for borrowers in so far as it almost certainly means there will be less choice in future because there will be one less brand in the marketplace. However, consolidation is an inevitable consequence of the funding problems lenders face as a result of the credit crunch and at least it is better than a lender withdrawing from t Read more:Alliance
Will AHHIP wind down pending the abolition of HIPs after the election? 2008-08-12 06:29:00 I note that Paul Broadhead, the Deputy Director General of AHIPP, the Association of HIP Providers, has resigned to take up the new position of Head of Mortgage Policy at The Building Societies Association in November.
It will be interesting to see if AHIPP replace Paul. By November the next General Election will be a maximum of 1 1/2 years away and with the Conservatives hot favourites to win HIP
Stamp Duty leak makes RICS survey headline redundant 2008-08-12 04:01:00 The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) monthly survey of the housing market out today is headlined "Tentative signs that housing activity may be nearing a floor." This would have been a very sensible headline, based on the content of the report, if the Government hadn't chosen to leak to The Sun last Tuesday that it was considering suspending stamp duty for a limited period.
However, i Read more:makes
, Stamp
When will we get the next Bank Rate cut? 2008-09-04 06:49:00 With the Bank of England deciding to leave Bank Rate unchanged @ 5% today the focus will increasingly be on how long we will have to wait for the next cut. After The Chancellor’s frank comments at the weekend that Britain is facing "arguably the worst" economic downturn in 60 years which will be "more profound and long-lasting" than people had expected, I anticipate that the MPC will have seriou
Which planet is our Prime Minister on? 2008-09-03 06:21:00 When presenting yesterday’s package of measures to help home buyers and the housing market Gordon Brown talked about “Help with stamp duty.” This is a bit like a thief saying I am going to help you by not stealing any money from you!
He also said “Homeowners need to know that we will do everything we can to keep the housing market moving forward.” I think most people will be surprised to Read more:planet
, Minister
How much will today's stamp duty cuts really cost? 2008-09-02 09:47:00 According to The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) just over 289,000 mortgages were granted to home buyers in the first half of this year in the UK and 50,000 (17%) of these buyers would have benefited if the new tax regime had applied. As the number of mortgage approvals has been declining all the indications are that there will be fewer mortgages for home buyers in the second half of the year. H
The Government has one last chance to get stamp duty right – in the Pre Budget Statement. 2008-09-02 04:27:00 The only good thing about today’s announcement from the Government
on stamp duty is that it clears the air. The inept leak that they were considering doing something on stamp duty had the totally predictable effect of causing a good proportion of those people who were thinking about buying to put their plans on hold. Most will now know that these pathetic proposals will not benefit them. My init Read more:chance
Suspending Stamp Duty on ALL residential property sales will cost very little, if anything! 2008-09-01 17:26:00 The latest figures from the Government show that stamp duty land tax on residential
properties raised £6.4bn in 2006/07, having increased by 140% from £2.7bn in 2001/02, powered not only by the increase in property
prices but also by increasing numbers of property prices crossing one of the stamp duty thresholds. An indication of the degree to which the Government has raked in more stamp duty ta Read more:Stamp
, little
, anything
Beware of dealing with First National and igroup 2008-09-19 08:06:00 GE Money’s 2 mortgage brands, FirstNational
and igroup, sent us emails yesterday evening saying that they were going to put two fingers up at the FSA’s mandatory Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) policy. They didn’t of course put it that way but the content of these emails, which covered both their first charge and second charge lending, was a blatant abuse of TCF. If the FSA lets GE Money ge Read more:Beware
The liquidity crises goes from bad to worse 2008-09-18 17:53:00 Despite today’s massive co-ordinated central bank action to pump dollars into the markets the continued extreme liquidity pressures deteriorated further. This is evidenced by another sharp rise in 3 month Libor, which increased today by 0.11% to 5.98%, making a rise of 0.28% so far this week.
Another key point from today's market movements is that although short dated gilt yields fell, the corre
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