BBA reports rise in mortgage approvals in May

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Joeskeppi wrote: »

Stick to Sam and Amanda, it's more your level.

Instead of frequenting !!!!!! sites you should go out and try to get yourself a girlfriend. You'll go blind otherwise.

chucky

wolfman wrote: »

?

They're both facts.

Approvals are at a very low point, but this is yet another increase

it's always good to look at these things over a period of time - instead of these month on month figures. volumes remain low.

Mortgage approvals show annual rise

Mortgage approvals rose 15.8 percent on a year ago in May, ending months of declines in another sign the housing market is stabilising albeit at very low levels, a survey showed on Tuesday.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLNE55M01Y20090623

wolfman

True.

Although, it's a 15.8% increase on a low figure. Percentages can show a trend (increase in this case), but can also be misleading, as they can make things sound more than they are.

If you look at mortgage approvals in August 2006, they were around 108,000. That's a larger period of time to look over.

June 2009 was 31,162, against June 2008 figure of around 26,900. It's a 15.8% increase, but the margin isn't huge, especially when compared to the 2006 figure. It's still very low.

And given that interest rates are still historically low, and won't always remain that way. I would put the increase down to last minute people grabbing good mortgage rates before interest rates start to go back to normal, and potentially the time of year too.

chucky

wolfman wrote: »

True.

Although, it's a 15.8% increase on a low figure. Percentages can show a trend (increase in this case), but can also be misleading, as they can make things sound more than they are.

If you look at mortgage approvals in August 2006, they were around 108,000. That's a larger period of time to look over.

June 2009 was 31,162, against June 2008 figure of around 26,900. It's a 15.8% increase, but the margin isn't huge, especially when compared to the 2006 figure. It's still very low.

And given that interest rates are still historically low, and won't always remain that way. I would put the increase down to last minute people grabbing good mortgage rates before interest rates start to go back to normal, and potentially the time of year too.

yes volumes are low, i was hinting that it's more useful to look at comparing over one year than one month.

part of that reason for low volumes is that currently most mortgage lending is new lending. re-mortgaging is a non-runner at the moment due to the luxury of low rates for some and the others that can't remortgage due to their LTV and the selective lending criteria that seems to be becoming regional.

the other part of volumes being low is that house purchase transactions are low.