Mortgage Approvals Still Up In June

Both the Guardian and the BBC report today that mortgage approvals are up in June (although we have to point out that the Guardian won the reporting race by 13 minutes!) In figures taken from the Bank of England, mortgage approvals in June reached 47,584, almost 3,000 more than in May. We wrote about the rise in mortgages just last week and it seems that figures are released increasingly often – however, the message coming out from this avalanche of data is that oh-so-gradually, the market is slowing its fall.

So what’s behind the increase in approvals? Well, it could be that homes are coming within reach of first-time buyers, or perhaps that some banks can start lending again. Figures are still less than half that of early 2007 however when over 100,000 mortgages were being granted each month. It will be a long time before we see those sorts of levels again – demand for mortgages in 2009 remains low. We know that you guys are keeping a close eye on the market so what do you think about the new data? Will it affect your decision to buy a new home or will you just ‘wait and see’?