Bousfield Blog: Are we doomed???

On 25^th Jan the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish the data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the UK and it is widely believed output will be down 0.1% (source Bloomberg.com).  If the first quarter stats in 2012 show a decrease too then we are officially in recession again.

House prices have fallen if you take the, land registry measure, by 1.9% nationally as of November 2011.

House prices have always varied widely around the county though and as usual London still shows price growth.  When I moved from London to Farnham six years ago I sold my house in London for less than I paid for my new house in Farnham, now the property in London is worth more than my house in Farnham.  Still I’d much rather live in Farnham thank you very much.

Unfortunately the land registry stats do not give us information on Farnham, but Surrey as a whole fell by 0.6%.  Personally I have seen prices rise in Farnham but then that is a reflection of it being an attractive place to live.

The figures I think show that prices on the whole have not changed particularly and the reason has to be supply of housing.  More buyers than sellers is keeping prices steady and because in Farnham we are seeing quite a lot more buyers than sellers that definitely keeps the prices steady and more often than not sees them rising.

What does this mean if you have a mortgage? Well if you feel that you fall into the bracket of home owners that has been fortunate enough to see a rise then you could look to switch your mortgage to another provider and there are justifiable reasons for doing so should the circumstances be right for you.  For example you may have bought your house two or three years ago and taken an 85% mortgage when the deals were not too great.  Now there is every chance you could find yourself in a position where your Loan to Value (LTV-see my jargon buster) is much lower and therefore you could open doors to much better mortgage products.  This example can still be relevant should you have taken a 70% mortgage and you are down now to 60% as there are some very good products at that level too.

As I have posted in the past I still cannot see interest rates moving in the near future, so if you are on the Standard Variable Rate (SVR) with your lender then talking to a mortgage broker may well benefit you.  Surely savings you make are better in your pocket than the banks.

In my last post I pointed out that lending rates have crept up before Christmas and that has continued slightly in 2012 but once again I stress there really are some very good deals available and with interest rates at this level one really ought to take advantage as they will not be around for ever.

So are we doomed?  Don't think so but I wouldn't rule it out!