Finance Tart

A collapse of nearly 20% in house prices means around 1.2m families have fallen into negative equity

The Woolwich has revealed a fixed rate mortgage of 2.29%, the cheapest since its first loan in 1847. But it comes with a catch

An online tool that enables savers to locate forgotten or lost bank accounts is proving popular with Brits, according to National Savings and Investments (NS&I).
Launched in January 2008 by the NS&I in conjunction with the Building Societies Association (BSA) and the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), mylostaccount.org.uk has received 180,000 applications to search for lost money.
In [...]

Nationwide’s latest house price survey offers little cheer to homeowners.
According to the building society, house prices continued to fall in January, dropping 1.3% on a month earlier and shaving £2,500 off the value of the average home.
The decline was slightly less than December’s, when Nationwide recorded a slide of 2.5%.
The annual rate of fall [...]

Moneysupermarket.com is warning homeowners that margins on tracker mortgages are rising.
With the Bank of England base rate at an all-time low, tracker deals have become increasingly popular.
However, lenders have been busy upping their margins on trackers; according to the price comparison website, margins have more than tripled in the past three months.
Research shows that in [...]

Mortgage search engine, mform.co.uk, is convinced that first-time buyers are returning to the market in force.
According to the firm’s research, applications from this group of house purchasers have increased 30% and people buying their first home now account for 40% of all users of the mform website.
In October of last year, the figure stood [...]