If you’ve read many articles, then you know that first time buyers are usually at a younger age. The recession has had am impact on that number as of late and they are not able to make the purchase at least in the last year or so.

The CML, the Counsel of Mortgage Lenders, keeps a number on the number of first time buyers and their records show that the demographics of this key group of individuals is, at least as of now, is slipping to an older age.

According to their records and the Regulated Mortgage Survey (RMS), that number shows that the age has turned from 29 to 31 at least in the last six months of the survey.

According to the CML, “An increasing number of first-time buyers were getting help – most likely from parents or grandparents – to raise funds for a deposit. The latest estimates indicate that around 80% of young first-time buyers are getting help in this way.”

When not receiving assistance from relatives of any sort, the average age is turning around to 37, at least this is the number according to the latest survey.

The LTV (loan-to-value) number that is being issued with the mortgage loan has a major effect on the number of individuals that are receiving the loan. The better the ratio the lower the age that apparently seems to receive the mortgage loan.

First time buyers usually have the hardest time when it comes to securing their mortgage. They usually are unfamiliar with the process and the amount of deposit they must place as security when receiving their first loan.

On the other hand, if they are educated in the process before they seek their first loan and do their homework, chances are better that they will receive the loan on the first attempt.

Mortgageforce, a lender with a long reputation, has been making loans to all types of borrowers and are well known in the industry.

They have just released some statistics that are somewhat surprising for the month of July, where they released figures that show that first time buyers made up some 20% of the company’s mortgage applications for the month of July, compared to only 9% for the month of June.

The company states that purchasers for all types of transactions also increased the past month accounting for 41% of the company’s business and that compares to 23% in June. Mortgageforce is also confident that the business seen at both Nationwide and Halifax also show this same trend.

Katie Tucker, the Technical Manager at Mortgageforce said, “Stable house prices and the availability of higher loan to value mortgages support each other more than you might think: we all know that more 90% mortgages means more buyers can get on the ladder, but it works both ways, property values stabilising means lenders can offer higher loan-to-values without as much risk, so without needing as much deposit. We expect to see even more 85% – 95% deals out there soon."

Tucker added that half of the purchase transactions were 86% to 90% loan to value (LTV) deals. She also said, “This is high against trend and undoubtedly a result of pent up demand.”

As many expected to happen, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to keep their interest rate held at 0.5%.

This rate has been unchanged since March and because of the recession, many believe that this rate will remain unchanged for the rest of the year, according to Moneysupermarket.

According to the company, “Demand for fixed-rate mortgages has been strong as borrowers have sought to lock into a fix while interest rates are at their lowest. Fixing was particularly popular in spring, when the average fixed-rate deal was the lowest it has been since the start of 2004.”

Rates on tracker mortgages are directly linked to the base rate, so in many cases, you’ll find a lower rate available on loans. This could change however if the base rate changes then the tracking rate will likely go up accordingly.

Borrowers seem, at least at this time, to prefer a fixed rate mortgage because of the stability of the loan payments for the length of the loan.

Moneysupermarket says, “You need to think carefully about which type of mortgage is most suitable for your needs. Fixed rates give security, particularly if you need to budget carefully, as you know exactly what your monthly payments will be for a set period of time. In such circumstances, it’s worth fixing, even if you seem to be paying a premium for doing so, because of the peace of mind it gives.”

Keep your credit score in good shape and the chances are better for you to receive the type of loan that you want for the property that you have in mind.

How a bank operates and the activities that it faces during the year can make or break the performance of the facility.

Lloyds TSB just released their figures for the first half of the year and it showed some surprising results. The first figure is was the overall profit and loss statement and for this company it showed a Pro-forma loss of some 4-billion pounds for the first half of the year. This compares to a profit of 2.8 million pounds the year before.

There was a resilient core business performance despite margin pressure and a weak economy. There was a 20% share of gross lending when it came to mortgages with 37% of net new lending to first time customers. There were also 60,000 new commercial accounts.

Total impairments were significantly higher at 13.4-billion pounds, but that number was expected to peak in the first half of year. HBOS legacy assets account for 80-percent of the first half charge.

The outlook is for high single-digit income growth within two years. This will be accomplished through a reduction in the cost to income ratio.

Regarding a look at this year, members of the executive committee offered comments. J. Eric Daniels, the Group Chief Executive said, “Our first half loss was driven by the high levels of impairment. The core business delivered a resilient performance, despite the weak economy. We are successfully managing the short-term issues and are well positioned to outperform over the medium term, providing value to our customers and shareholders.” While Sir Victor Blank made the comment, “I have a great belief in the exciting prospects for the Group going forward. We are very strongly positioned for long-term success with a highly experienced management team focused on delivering the significant potential of the new business.”

The effort that a bank makes to be competitive with others is the difference between whether they’ll do extra business with borrowers who are looking for mortgage loans and others who are either happy with the business they doing with or are unaware.

Nationwide made the announcement today that they are cutting some of their rates by up to 0.5%. These include fixed rates and some tracker mortgages.

The packages that this applies to include some of its two and three year fixed rate loans and some of it two year tracker deals. This can be used by new customers and remortgagers as well.

The bank immediately is retaining it’s 99-pound reservation fee, which is currently existant, for the building society. The fee is not refundable and you will be unable to add the fee to the loan itself.

In an era where the recession has hit the housing market, most banks have been increasing their mortgage rates to cover some of the losses they have experienced. Mortgage rates have also been effected by some area that have seen a slump in the housing market.

Last week, Alistair Darling, Chancellor, threatened to report banks to the Competition Commission if they failed to reduce some rates. Nationwide may be the first bank to start a new trend in this motion to reduce rates.

The mortgage business is thriving in other countries just like it is in the United Kingdom as potential home buyers are looking for loans that are competitive.

One of these other countries is Australia, where some of the cities in the country have a dense population with people looking for homes.

The two biggest lenders in the country have been declared according to some research by CoreData which shows they have obtained the largest share of the market. According to statistics, they were responsible for nearly $30.3-billion of the $35.6-billion in new loans.

The two are CBA and Westpac and they have 85% of the mortgage business in the country.

Westpac’s loan book increased by $15.2-billion for the June 2009 quarter, which was a gain of approximately 8%. On the other hand, CBA (excluding their Bankwest franchise) grew 6.5% to $227-billion.

There are two other major players in the Australian industry, ANZ and NAB. NAB showed a growth of only 2.2% while ANZ had a 1.8% increase.

CoreData’s Andrew Inwood said it was no longer simply about offering two types of product offerings and in the case of CBA, he said the bank was offering the cheapest variable load rate on the market. He also said that “CBA and Westpac had been able to effectively steal business from those banks that can’t commit to service.”

When you combine the ‘big two’ together for there total mortgage loan offerings, they were able to sustain an outstanding residential lending factor together totaling some most substantial lending in the mortgage arena.

Agency Express, in its latest Property Activity Index, for the month of July saw some surprising figures in some cities and disappointments in others.

Overall, the house sales showed a drop by some six-percent during the month of July even though there were signs that the numbers should have been better.

Cities that showed an increase in sales included Edinburgh up 36%, Leicester up 46% and the biggest shot in the arm came to York which showed almost a ninety-percent increase.

The cities that showed the biggest drop included Nottingham down 38%, Manchester down 44% and Glasgow which showed a surprising 74% drop in sales. One of the reasons that analysts think that the number of house sales decreased in these cities was the reluctance of some sellers to place their houses on the market during the summer season, generally a time when they go on holidays. They wait until the third quarter to place their homes up for sale.

Although it can’t account for the cities that showed an increase in sales, the summer sales season is somewhat slower than other and is consistent with what has happened in previous years. You can expect the market to pick up in August and September which would be more appropriate for the selling seasons of homes as it has been in the past.

Other areas that showed an upward trend in sales were Coventry and Carlisle while Bristol and Machester saw some declines over the three month period.

According to their figures, Clydesdale Bank has approved a substantial increase in the number of mortgages than they did in the past two months over the same time last year.

Their records show that they have approved approximately 30% more home loans during the months of May and June in comparison to the same two months in 2008.

It is one of Scotland’s largest financial institutions where they have more than 150 location throughout the United Kingdom.

One of the reasons for the increase in home loans was the pledge to release some one-billion pounds of new business to business and homeowners across the country.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire, its sister bank, is currently offering mortgages to homeowners with a 95% LTV (loan to value) ratio.

Bank officials say that they have a commitment to offer competitive mortgages while at the same time provide an excellent service. That they focus on the needs of their customers.

At the same time, Craig Carter states that their deposit business is growing as well, “The fact that the half year results showed that our deposits had increased by 15 per cent to 20.1 billion pounds shows ultimately that our customers trust us.Clydesdale continues to play a key role in helping local buinesses navigate today’s challenging economic climate. Ensuring locally deposited money stays within the local economy means we can reinvest these funds to help the growth plans of other businesses in the East.”

With today’s recession and unemployment figures it’s not that uncommon to hear somebody talking about going into bankruptcy. According to the latest statistics from the folks at Credit Action there is a trend to go this route to take care of financial woes.

Their statistics show that the number of insolvencies is reaching near 30,000 person every quarter of the year. The number of personal bankruptcies for the year, so far, is approximately 41,870 persons which can do major damage to credit card companies who are depending on this payments.

When doing the math, this shows that one person will go bankrupt every six minutes according to the statistics.

One of the reasons that bankruptcy is popular, is that so many people won’t go into looking for alternatives to this issue and choose this softer way of solving their debt problem.

Carl Jackson, National Head of Tenon Recovery has said, “The amount of young people facing bankruptcy has also increased in the past twelve months.” He continued, “There has been a highlighted need for money education charities such as Credit Action, by blaming the financial vulnerability of younger people on a lack of education in managing their finances and youthful recklessness in dealing with money. However it is not just the younger generations who are currently struggling with their personal finances.”

He finished by saying, “The increase in families and individuals struggling with debt repayments such as mortgages and credit card payments is reflected in the increased number of calls that debt counseling services are receiving these days. Advisers at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS), which provides free advice and counseling to those facing financial difficulties, have noticed a sharp increase in calls to their hotline. Debt experts regularly counsel that sharing a debt problem with a trained adviser can be the first step in solving that problem.”

Building societies play an important role in the strength of an economy to show any new trends when it comes to the mortgage industry.

The Building Society Association showed, in their latest statistics, showed that gross mortgage lending by their members was roughly 2-billion pounds in June 2009. This compares to 3.2-billion pounds over the same period in 2008. This is roughly a 37-percent drop than the previous year.

Brian Morris, Head of Savings Policy at the BSA made the following comments, “Gross mortgage lending by building societies was just under £2 billion in June 2009, the highest level seen this year, and up 30% on May. Despite this, lending remains at historically low levels, and is 40% lower than in June 2008. Mortgage approvals show signs of stabilizing as they reached a year high of £1.8 billion, but are more than 30% down on this time last year.”

Their figures also showed that members withdrew some 2.239-billion pounds in June compared to an increase of 419-million last year.

He had comments about the savings issue as well, “The withdrawal experienced by the building society sector is not unexpected given the very challenging economic backdrop. With rising unemployment, subdued income growth and the official Bank Rate at an historic low, it is very difficult to attract retail savings. In addition, there is evidence households are looking to take advantage of the low interest rates to pay off debt rather than save.”