USmortgage applications surge September 9, 2009 Mortgage applications in the US surged last week to their highest since late May as consumers sought to take advantage of the lowest interest rates in months. Mortgage Bankers Association data said rates on 30-year fixed-rate home loans fell to a three-month low, spurring a surge in demand for home refinancing loans. Applications to buy [...]
Housing market no longer over-valued September 8, 2009 AT this rate, City A.M. will soon be able to ditch the “Beating the Blues” puff we run every day on our front page. We introduced it during the depth of the recession to emphasise that even though the economy was going to hell in a hand-basket, and life had become truly grim for our [...]
CITY CAN BE THE CRUNCH CASE CAPITAL September 8, 2009 ANTHONY MATONPARTNER AT HAUSFELD & CO LLP SINCE the credit crunch started in the US in 2007, the subsequent banking crisis has spread across the globe. The UK’s legal profession may have suffered as a consequence, but we have also been presented with a golden opportunity to position London as the international venue of choice [...]
CITY VIEWS: Do you think house prices are beginning to stabilise? September 7, 2009 JONATHAN HIPSON STATE BANK OF INDIA“I think it depends on the availability of finance. At the moment there is a real squeeze. New buyers are really struggling to get a mortgage, which now requires a 40 per cent deposit paid upfront. And with interest rates going back up, any rise in prices is just not [...]
UK set for square root-shaped recovery September 6, 2009 IT is almost official: we are out of recession. The economy is growing again, albeit at a snail’s pace, the equity and debt markets have bounced back, some firms are posting higher profits and there has been a mini-renaissance in City deal-making. All of which is great news but certainly not enough to uncork the [...]
Six myths about the financial crisis September 6, 2009 A comfortable, corporatist consensus is building up about how to deal with the financial crisis. Led by Alistair Darling and his French and German counterparts at the G20 finance ministers’ summit on the weekend, this consensus is essentially that the financial crisis “proves” that global free market capitalism has “failed” and that everything is the [...]
Shared ownership getting young professional boost September 3, 2009 IT’S A COMMON refrain that for young professionals in London, getting a foot on the housing ladder can be nigh-on impossible. Increasingly, ambitious young workers are looking to shared ownership schemes. Originally set up by the government as a way to provide affordable homes in housing association developments to key workers like police and nurses, [...]
Fed to keep policy loose September 2, 2009 A SLUGGISH recovery and continued risks to the economy saw the Federal Reserve hold rates at its August meeting, but said its $300bn (£184bn) Treasury purchase programme would end in October “in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets”. The minutes showed that “most participants saw the economy as likely to [...]
HSBC debuts ultra-low rate on home loan September 2, 2009 HSBC has waded further into the mortgage market by offering a new deal at 1.99 per cent for borrowers who can stump up a 40 per cent deposit. The rate, the lowest ever for a home purchase or remortgage and a substantial discount on the bank’s standard variable rate (SVR) of 3.94 per cent, will [...]
CITY VIEWS: ARE RETAIL BANKS DOING ENOUGH TO DELIVER A VALUABLE SERVICE AND RESTORE CONFIDENCE? August 19, 2009 WAYNE HARRISON THE KSA GROUP“I feel that they are doing what they can but the underlying problem is with the perceptions concerning bankers’ pay. The fact that the money that has been pumped into the system by the Treasury is being retained by the banks does not help.” ALISTAIR GREY BROOKFIELD“I just got a new [...]