The first app we have for you is ‘UK Mortgage Calculators’ and you will be pleased to to know that it is free. What we like about this app for the iPhone is how it is 5-in-1, each one offering advice on different areas of a mortgage, be it a homeowner or a buy-to-let mortgage.

The second app for the UK is ‘Mortgager – Compare Interest Only and Repayment Mortgages’ and costs £0.59. The app is very easy to use, just put how much you wish to borrow and how long you wish the mortgage term to run for, as well as the rate that you will be able to get your home loan for. Once you have clicked done you will see how much your monthly payments will be; repayment or an interest only.

For the U.S. we have ‘Mortgage Loan Place Mortgage Calculator’ and costs just $0.99. This app is a little more complex than some of the others, as it allows you to play around with the financial tool. The reason why is because when you have a home load for say 20 years things never stay the same during that term, so creating scenarios could help you prepare for the worst.

‘Mortgage & Loan Calculator Pro – InThePhone’ is a little more expensive – but still only $1.99. This app is one of the easier ones to work, and should be able to answer certain question when it comes to not only a mortgage but also loans and if you wish to invest in a property.

We hope that these four apps will help you.

Lord Myners said, “Banks were ‘foolish’ to offer 100% mortgages.” The plans that Gordon Brown plans to ban 100% mortgages is an admission that our government has not done enough to protect borrowers from lending above their means.

Most 100% mortgages have now been scrapped by banks, but this outright bank will make certain that borrowers are protected from themselves. You have to ask yourself if this ban is a year too late.

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Mortgage lending dropped to £17.7 billion in September according to the Council of Mortgage lenders (CML) that’s a drop of 10 percent from the previous month and a whopping 42 percent decrease from September 2007.

September Is generally a good month for sales as people try to sell their homes before the Christmas period kicks in. But September’s gross lending figure is the lowest September figure for 7 years and the lowest a figure since January 2001.

The third quarter’s gross estimate is at £62 billion, which is down 16 percent from the second quarter of 2008. Plus from the third quarter of last year it’s down 37 percent.

According to the CLM they are predicting that things will get worse, estimating that lending will continue fall from £363 billion in 2007 to £255 billion this year.

Analysis predict there will no change in mortgage lending despite the government bailouts due to lenders only accepting worthy low loan-to-value business, its also said that it’s not so much a case of the property not being out there for sale, more a case of the sellers not dropping their price, and with the limited mortgage products out their making it very difficult for genuine buyers.

Source: Telegraph

According to figures released by a leading banking organisation the numbers of mortgages approved by lenders have decreased by two-thirds over the last year. During the month of July this year 22,448 mortgage loans were approved, but 64,184 were approved in July 2007 that’s a fall of 65 percent.

The total value of all mortgages approved also fell by seven per cent during the month to £11.8 billion, 44 per cent lower than 12 months ago, and considerably down on the recent six-month average of £16 billion.

BBA spokesperson Rick Salmon, said that “There has been this decline in the number of loans approved in the last six months. It is down to a very quiet housing market and partly driven by people not wanting to borrow in the context of house prices falling.”

Some good news was that net mortgage lending was left unchanged since June and has leveled out at £4.3 billion, but even though there has been short term stabilization it’s a far cry from the economy improving quickly.

The housing market will still take some time to improve, with the cost of living going up for households this will make it harder for people wanting to purchase property due to lack of funds and deposit.

Source: telegraph

According to research by fairinvestment nine out of ten Britons who have an endowment policy think they were victims of mis-selling. The same amount ofpolicyholders also thinks that they will need to come up with extra cash to cover their mortgage at the end of the mortgage term, as they believe they will be left with a short fall.

In the 1980s and 90s there was great hype about endowment policies and people believed that not only would pay off their interest only mortgage but also leave them with a nice lump sum at the end of the polciy term.

In-fact in a poll by faitinvestments.co.uk they found that 86% of endowment policyholders were expecting their policy to suffer a shortfall.

If you feel you were mis-sold your endowment policy you can make a complaint to the ombudsman service.

If you were not given adequate information, or if it was not made clear to you that an endowment policy is a long term commitment you may have been mis-sold it, you should have also been told about the risks and fees involved.

It’s said that if you were not given this information then you would be unable to make an informed decision therefore maybe able to claim some compensation depending on your circumstances. To be eligible for compensation and to make a complaint, you would have to be mis-sold your policy as well suffer a shortfall when the policy matures leaving you unable to pay off your home.

Source: ifaonline

Halifax Bank of Scotland, who are part of the HBOS group, will shut the Mortgage Business to new applicants from the 22nd August to try and streamline its business.

HBOS’s efficiency drive along with the closure of the mortgage business will threaten 325 jobs, although it is said that by March 2009 they would have completed all the terminations of employments. There will also be 100 job losses from the IT department.

There are a few intermediary brands of HBOS being affected, Birmingham Midshires will now pick up all the buy-to-let and self build lending, and Intelligent Finance and the back office support team will also be hit by the change.

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The Financial Service Authority (FSA) yesterday fined Liverpool Victoria bank £840,000 for adding protection insurance policies to customer mortgages without explaining to them that it is not compulsory.

It’s been reported that some lenders are just adding the protection policies to the quotes without a word to the customers, so they end up paying for something they did not necessary need, and in some cases when the customer realised that it was not compulsory, they would then put pressure on them to take it out still.

The FSA also said that they were also guilty of not explaining that the policy premiums were added to the customer loans up front, and failed to tell the customer that there would also be interest added to the policy.

It’s said that 14,500 clients were paying for protection policies that they didn’t fully understand due to lack of no information from the bank; each case on average was paying £1,600 for the protection policies.

The FSA said they have already fined seven other firms for misspelling policies.

It this economic climate we do not want to be paying for something we don’t need, if you use a financial adviser or when implying to a mortgage company, make sure there are no additional policies added to your loan, ask to see any insurance policies on a separate quote.

You may wish to take a payment protection out, so you should ask about this and make your decision if it affordable for you. If you get your quote separate you then can have a chance to shop around, as it can sometimes be cheaper to get cover independently from your mortgage provided

Source: Mirror

Read more UK mortgage news here.

Good news for all professional landlords, Woolwich, the mortgage arm of Barclays, is cutting rates on buy-to-let deals by up to half a percentage point.

There will be a new rate from Tuesday of 6.99 percent on its five-year fixed-rate deal, down from 7.49 per cent. The interest rate on its portfolio lifetime tracker, aimed at professional landlords, will also fall, from 1.99 percent above the base rate, currently 5 per cent, to 1.49 per cent rate above the base rate.

Last Friday Halifax owned by HBOS cut rates by up to almost a third of a point on some mortgage deals, plus the Bank of Scotland who is also part of the HBOS group reduced rates by 0.45 percentage points. It seems that the Buy-to-let landlords are benefiting from a series of rate cuts.

It’s not just the Buy-to-let landlords that have benefited from the latest rate cuts; Woolwich also cut rates on residential deals by up to 0.35 percentage points while Abbey, Britain’s second-biggest lender reduced its fixed-rate deals by 0.1 percentage points. Nationwide and Lloyds TSB have also announced cheaper deals.

The reason for the lenders reducing their rates on home loans is because there was an ease in some of the conditions in the inter-bank lending market. Swap rates, which determine the cost of fixed-rate mortgages, fell below six per cent last week after peaking at 6.5 per cent in mid June.

It now seems that banks are gently lending more, after they reduced their mortgage books earlier this year.

To benefit from the two new Woolwich rates you maximum loan would be 75 percent of the property value, so you would have to put 25 percent down as deposit. The five-year fixed-rate deal has a 1 per cent fee. It has an early redemption charge (ERC) for the first three-years of six months interest. The lifetime tracker charges a fee of £295 per property and also has an ERC for the first three years, of two months interest.

There are a few good deals out there such as this one from Stroud & Swindon currently offers one of the most competitive fixed rate deals. Its three-year fixed-rate buy-to-let home loan has a rate of 6.80 per cent with a £1499 fee on loans of up to 75 per cent of a property’s value, with no extended ERCs.

Leeds Building Society is also offering a lifetime tracker at 1.59 per cent above the base rate for life of the loan, with a maximum LTV of 70 per cent, with a £1499 fee and no early repayment charges.

Source: timesonline

Read more about UK mortgages here.

In London this week the U.K said a review of Britain’s mortgage-financing market, although it’s believed that the government won’t respond to industry demands immediately in the call to improve the current market conditions.

Due to the downturn in the housing market, the U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling commissioned a report by former HBOS Chief Executive James Crosby earlier this year, this was in a bid to reverse the squeeze on the market activity.

Although the final report is expected at the end of the year, there will be an interim report that should be presented tomorrow. The interim report by Mr. Crosby’s is believed to be just a analysis of the state of the mortgage market, rather than a policy that will make recommendations, although it will probably set out some areas for the government to consider. It’s unlikely that the government will act on the report before the pre-budget review this autumn.

Meanwhile, U.K. Housing Minister Caroline Flint said Sunday that the government will look at doing more to help the housing market.

The U.K. Housing Minister Caroline Flint is looking both internationally and nationally at ways they can soften the blow for people who are faced with financial worries with the low housing market and cost of living hike.

There is a plan by the Council of Mortgage Lenders to reopen access wholesale mortgage finance and encourage new mortgage lenders. This would allow lenders to swap new mortgage-backed securities for cash. This scheme amongst others is being considered by the U.K. Treasury.

 Source: Walll Street Journal

Read more UK mortgage articles here.

Broker, Mergie has said that there seems to be an oversupply, in 2005 that same house sold for $110,000. Fannie Mae has acquired twice as many homes through foreclosure, it is these unsold properties that are now weighing heavy on the company’s stock.

Fannie Mae lost half of their stock since June 5, part of this problem were late payments along with a huge number of foreclosures.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac owned a record $6.9 billion of foreclosed homes on March 31. This figure is huge when you consider that $8.56 billion are owned by all 8,500 U.S. commercial banks and savings and loans.

Economists Ethan Harris and Michelle Meyer have said that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand to lose $1.39 billion on the foreclosed houses they currently own.

Read more at Bloomberg