Figures from the Financial Services Authority, which has regulated mortgages since 2004, show that 38 per cent of Britain’s 11.1 million mortgage borrowers — or more than one in three — may have made inadequate provision to pay off their capital sum.

Many are in negative equity and the savings products taken out to cover the capital repayments have fallen short. That 38 per cent figure does not include those with endowments or buy-to-let investors who took out interest-only mortgages to keep the cost down.

Experts said that homeowners who pinned their hopes on their house covering the cost of paying off the mortgage were most at risk after house price falls of 22 per cent from peak to trough, according to figures from Halifax.

A spokesman for the FSA said: “At the top of the market it was the case that for a lot of borrowers, interest only was the only way they could afford to buy. For these borrowers it becomes increasingly difficult to pay off the capital as time goes on.”

A spokeswoman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders said that at the moment homeowners cannot rely on house-price inflation to cover the capital repayment. “They will have fewer options available if they get into difficulty, as switching to interest-only is a coping strategy when you have payment problems.”

Interest only deals first appeared in the early eighties alongside endowment policies. Endowment mis-selling in the late eighties brought an end to their common use as a repayment vehicle but the concept of interest- only remained.

About 40 per cent of borrowers on interest-only deals took them out before 2003, according to moneysupermarket.com, although there was a surge in applications in 2006 and 2007, as house prices rose.

The proportion of loans that are being repaid on a capital and interest basis has fallen from 53.1 per cent at the end of 2007 to 51.7 per cent, indicating that switching to an interest only loan has continued.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.

US housing starts and permits fell unexpectedly in July, as hopes for a boost from falling house prices and government stimulus efforts for first-time buyers proved over-optimistic.

Privately owned housing starts fell 1 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 units. This was well below market expectations for 600,000 units and significantly less than the revised 587,000 unit figure for June, according to figures from the US Commerce Department. Compared to July last year, housing starts dropped 37.7 per cent.

Construction starts for single family homes, the worst hit part of the housing market, rose 1.7 per cent to an annual rate of 490,000 units, the highest since October. But the headline figure was dragged down by a 13.3 per cent fall in starts on multi-family units.

New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, fell 1.8 percent to 560,000 units in July. Analysts had been expecting 580,000 units. Compared to the same period a year-ago, building permits declined 39.4 per cent. This was despite the $8,000 Federal government tax credit stimulus efforts introduced for first-time buyers.

The inventory of total houses under construction fell to record low 609,000 in July, the department said, while the total number of permits authorised but not yet started also hit a record low at 102,300.

US stocks rose in morning trade as the surprise drop in housing starts was offset by better-than-expected results from retailer Home Depot. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 63.63 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 9,198.97.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.

A similar pattern has emerged in USD/JPY which has struggled to hold over 95. In the last four trading days we have seen a tight trading range for GBP/USD which is unusual in the light of the volatility in the last few months.

Today we have a few data snaps in the calendar for the UK which could shake the markets back into life. We have UK mortgage approvals, consumer credit, net lending and M4 money supply out this morning.

Yesterday the USD strengthened against the pound from over 1.65 back to 1.6350 and from 1.4280 down to 1.4108 against the euro. US stock markets fell more than 1% and this helped swing money back into the USD. US economic data supported the trend into risk aversion as consumer confidence fell from 49.3 to 46.6, the lowest level in 3 months.

The S&P;/Case-Shiller home price index fell 17.1% in May- this is the main measure of US house price movements. In addition US corporate earnings were shaky and Bank of America announced that they will be shutting 10% of branches signaling further lay offs.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.

Lenders are now charging an average of 5.04pc to home owners who want to fix their repayments for two years, up from 4.92pc on Monday and 4.74pc at the beginning of last week.

The steep rise in the average rate seen in recent days has been driven by Nationwide’s decision to increase the cost of some of its fixed rate deals for the second time in two weeks.

Nationwide was followed by the Woolwich, which raised the cost of one of its two-year fixed-rate deals by 0.7pc, and other lenders are now expected to increase their rates again in the days ahead.

Nationwide sparked the latest round of price increases when it repriced its entire fixed rate mortgage range on June 12.

Other lenders were quick to follow suit, with major groups such as Halifax, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Abbey and Alliance & Leicester all increasing the cost of the deals they offered.

The latest round of price rises is bad news for home owners, with almost 90pc of mortgage borrowers opting for a fixed-rate loan, according to Legal & General, in a bid to lock in to low borrowing costs before the base rate starts to rise again.

But there are still good deals available, with Mansfield Building Society offering a two-year fix of 3.39pc for people with a 25pc deposit who pay a £999 fee, while Britannia Building Society has a two-year rate of 5.99pc for those with only a 10pc deposit who pay a £599 fee.

For those looking to fix for five years, the Post Office has a rate of 4.45pc at a 60pc loan to value ratio with a £599 fee, and Britannia Building Society is offering 6.19pc at a 90pc LTV with a £999 fee.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.

Gross mortgage lending totalled an estimated £10.3 billion in May, down 2 per cent compared to £10.5 billion in April and down 58 per cent from May 2008, according to figures published today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

There have been signs recently that more home-buyers are returning to the market, with estate agents reporting higher transactions volumes and record rises in buyer interest.

But the CML said that the rise in buyer activity could be being offset by a decline in the number of homeowners taking out new mortgage deals when their fixed-term deal comes to an end. A more detailed breakdown of the figures will be published in two weeks time.

Many banks and building societies have a standard variable rate or SVR that mortgages revert to once the fixed-rate term has come to an end. Many SVRs, which are pegged to the Bank of England base rate, have tumbled since autumn last year as the Bank cut rates sharply.

They are now mostly more competitive than new fixed-deals on the market, prompting many homeowners to take advantage of the lower rate. Many lenders have raised the rates on their fixed-rate deals in recent weeks.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.

The fact that CPI has remained steady will slightly ease the pressure on the ECB to cut interest rates in their March meeting. In the forex markets the theme of the week for most currency pairs has been range bound trading.

EUR/USD looks the most likely to break its current range as it approaches 1.26, GBP/USD is also approaching support at 1.4150 and GBP/EUR is being buoyed by USD strength against EUR.

Over the last week we have continued to see the YEN unwinding particularly against the USD falling 9% from the low to high point in the week- a major shift in sentiment!

This is not surprising after a poor start to 2009 for the Japanese economy; figures demonstrated that exports fell 46% in January alone and their economy sank 3.3% in the last 3 months of 2008. This weak data was exasperated by the resignation of the Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa following his erratic performance at the recent G7 meeting.

The weakening of the Yen as discussed earlier this week underlines a shift in sentiment away from a currency previously conceived as a “safe haven”.

The trend of the “Dollar Index” which tracks the US currency against a basket of currencies demonstrated this movement away from Yen and back into the dollar. The index has already increased 8% in 2009 as investors are now looking at the US dollar as the favourable option for safety.

This is ironic given the awful data arising from the US economy…. yesterday we saw durable goods fall 5.2% in January and jobless claims soared to 667,000- very weak data which only helped to strengthen the dollar as risk aversion and a flight to safety stepped up a notch.

The contents of this blog are for information purposes only. It is not intended as a recommendation to trade or a solicitation for funds. The Wise Money Blog cannot be held responsible for any loss or damages arising from any action taken following consideration of this information.