Negative Equity Fears for 2 Million
Posted on 8 November, 2010 at 7:30 by Peter Kelly
Falling house prices and an unstable housing market means that up to 2 million borrowers could be facing negative equity by 2010, according to predictions by analysts Standard & Poor.
There are currently 335,000 home owners who owe more on the secured debts against their home, such as a mortgage, over the value of the property. This figure is four times that of just four months ago.
These latest figures coincide with new reports that certain mortgage lenders are aggressively pushing forward with repossession orders, even for homeowners who are just a few hundred pounds behind on their mortgage payments.
The CML (Council of Mortgage Lenders) report that almost 19,000 homes were repossessed in the first half of 2008 alone. They predict that this figure will hit 26,000 in the second half of the year.