The entire world began to feel a financial crisis in the summer of 2008. While some people claim to have predicted it to happen, and those of us working within the mortgage industry knew eventually the bottom would fall out, we do not think the world was ready for the rapid decline that happened.

It is a proven fact that banks are not lending money to individuals for mortgages at the level they were a year ago. In addition to a lack of lending, there are also fewer products available in the consumer mortgage market. The positive news for the short term is that those people who have a variable rate mortgage have seen their mortgage bill drop, as the Bank of England has currently set the rate at an all time low of 0.5%. While this is bad news for those hoping to earn interest from savings, it is positive news for those with a variable rate mortgage.

To make matters worse, the press and the media continue to harp on about the Credit Crunch. The media continues to print gloom and doom stories that do nothing more than paint the bleakest picture imaginable, no matter if they are factually true or not. The worst part of the situation is that consumer confidence is based around what is read in the newspapers and what is seen on TV. The media is one of the only ways that people not directly involved in the credit crisis gets information on the state of the economy. Misleading information can be the route of serious consumer doubt, which only hurts the economy more.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Housing Market, Mortgage, Mortgage Rates, Mortgages, house price, interest rates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.