Is It Too Soon To Tell If Recovery Is On The Way?
We reported last week that a certain level of optimism was creeping into the housing and homeowner loan markets, due to the fact that the Bank of England had released a report which showed that the total number of new mortgages and secured loans had increased over the course of both January and February this year.
Coupled with the news from the Nationwide building society that house prices had increased slightly and that the number of available homeowner loans had increased by around 13 per cent in March, many experts saw this as a reason to be cautiously positive about the first signs of financial and economic recovery.
But, as usual with this sort of situation, opinion is divided, with many other experts claiming that any signs of recovery in the housing and homeowner loan markets are merely a statistical blip, which is usually seen at around this time of year, as this has always traditionally been the most active period for house sales and new loans. Many have said that this increase in activity was expected and that we should not read too much into the figures just yet, as it is too soon to start talking about recovery in these areas.
One UK economist commented that banks and building societies were still reeling from their recent losses and that offering new loans to customers was still a big risk which many lenders are not currently prepared to take and until there is a significant improvement in lending and the number of new loan deals, we are unlikely to see a full recovery of the housing market.
It is also interesting to note that whilst the Nationwide recorded an increase in house prices, at the same time the Halifax claimed that they were still continuing to fall. It seems there are a large number of conflicting opinions and nobody really knows for sure……perhaps we should just wait and see!
