7 Year Low For Mortgages In UK : Update

England and Australia are ahead of most markets in the housing cycle. This report from Financial Times confirms that the trend is in place. "Mortgage completions dropped from 63,000 in January to 59,000 last month, the lowest since monthly records began in 1998..This is at comparable quarterly levels last seen during the early 1990s when house prices were falling."

And Yahoo has an article up with tons of UK data. Prices are largely dithering near all time highs, while the market is steadily deteriorating. "All of this has come about despite 110,000 new sellers adding to the growing over-supply..levels per estate agent rising 6% this month to stand a third higher than a year ago...The number of properties coming on the market is almost twice that coming off, the biggest imbalance in 3 years...Over-optimistic sellers face months on the market, while agents report realistic sellers agreeing deals at 10% below last year's boom prices."

Notice that the mortgage numbers fell before prices followed. Total mortgage originations in the US dropped over $1 trillion in 2004 compared to 2003. Thanks to Patrick at San Francisco Bay Area Housing Crash Continues for the link.