Posted on 04/02/2013 1:09:10 PM PDT by whitedog57
It is often said that Britain and America are “two nations divided by a common language”. They are also two nations divided by Central Banks: The Federal Reserve and the Bank of England.
As a consequence, the US and UK housing bubbles and recovery are similar (although the US bubble was worse).
April 2 (Bloomberg) — U.K. mortgage approvals fell more than economists forecast in February, underlining what Nationwide Building Society has said is an “uncertain” market. Lenders granted 51,653 mortgages, the least since September, compared with a revised 54,187 in January, the Bank of England said today in London.
This chart looks like the US Mortgage Purchase Application Index from the MBA:
The UK is having a stable recovery after their housing bubble burst (white line) although it was not as bad as the USA bubble correction. But both indices are stable.
The US now has a similar unemployment rate to the UK.
And both are far better than much of the Euro-area where the unemployment rate is a sad 12%.
The 10 year US Treasury has a similar yield to the 10 year UK sovereign bond yield.
Mortgage rates? I am comparing Bankrate’s 30 year average for fixed-rate mortgages with the UK Standard Variable Rate which usually kicks in after 2 years.
Well, keeping the UK mortgage rate higher during the housing bubble likely resulted in a smaller bubble than the US experienced.
No doubt at all. Even if some sort of recovery were to happen, we Baby Boomers would out-croak it. Houses around all of you would be filled with renters who speak foreign languages.
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