After being unable to maintain the repayments on her GBP360,000 Northern Rock mortgage Christina Georgiou and her three children have been given just a month to vacate the property they once called home.
There are anticipated to be many thousands of people just like Ms Georgiou who have fallen behind on their mortgage repayments but the irony of Northern rock, effectively a government backed financial institution, throwing people out of their home is sure to stir up controversy.
A particularly relevant fact of this situation is that the Northern Rock lent the money not really knowing if the repayments were affordable. This is much like many other banks and building societies which will strike a sombre note for many observers who may now be expecting this scenario repeated across the country.
A new range of Alliance and Leicester mortgage products has just been announced with flexibility built in to suit different customer needs.
There are different fixed term periods available, fee or no fee mortgages and also a base rate tracker. Some excellent rates are available, with a maximum loan of 75 percent of the property value enabling the Alliance and Leicester to offer these rates. One of the most popular mortgage options is expected to be the 2 year fixed rate with a 5.99 percent interest rate.
One of the Alliance and Leicester tracker mortgages that customers will find interesting is currently quoting a rate of 5.89 percent for the first 2 years, this is base rate plus 0.89 percent. After 2 years the tracker works at base plus 1.49 percent.
The latest Halifax house price report showed a slide of 1.7 percent for the month of July, taking the overall decrease for the year to date to 8.8 percent.
A Halifax spokesman said that increasing demands on consumers income as well as much tighter mortgage lending criteria is making it very difficult for people to get into the market, with a natural decline in prices to try and stimulate interest.
On the topic of mortgage approvals, which really drive the housing market, they are down by almost 70 percent compared with the same time last year according to Halifax figures. This leads to the real market, that is those who can finance a move, shrinking considerably and in many cases almost cutting off completely the first time buyer.
