Soft landing

[DimPrawn]

There are indeed some amazing busts about these days... it wasn't like this when I was young...

I blame junk food. Gives 16 yr olds <edit>banned?</edit> like a porn star.

[Lucy]

Actually I couldn't decide between a sasprawn or a dimguru, either sounds like something from a chinese menu.

[DimPrawn]

1 sasguru + 1 dimprawn =

[Lucy]

1 sasguru + 1 dimprawn =

[sasguru]

Isn't it amazing that in a country prone to booms and busts, these concepts are not instilled into every child? But then most can't do simple sums so that should be no surprise.

[DimPrawn]

I told you BTL was a bad idea. At least that's what I think I said.

[Bagpuss]

But it's supply and demand innit? Immigrants, lack of new housing, how can things possibly go bust?

Yours
The economically illiterate

[DimPrawn]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...siness.banking

Dire mortgage lending statistics and a profit warning from one of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders yesterday underlined the crisis facing the housing market as the credit crunch continues.

The Bank of England said new mortgage approvals in April tumbled to their lowest level on record, much worse than expected and bringing warnings from economists of a knock-on effect on consumer spending.

Bradford & Bingley, the biggest buy-to-let mortgage lender, said arrears had begun to rise and the bank had slumped £8m into the red after just four months of the year. It said the situation was likely to get worse as more homeowners find it difficult to meet mortgage payments.

At the same time, the UK's biggest building society, Nationwide, raised its mortgage rates as it tried to rebuild profit margins. Alliance & Leicester also raised its fixed-rate mortgages by between 0.05 and 0.25 of a percentage point.

The stream of bad news from the homelending sector drove the FTSE-100 index down 45.9 to 6007.6 as billions of pounds were wiped off the value of housebuilders, banks and mortgage lenders. Sterling had its worst day for a month, closing down 1% against the dollar. Dealers also blamed the concerns about the wider economy.


And it's raining.