| Bank mortgage approvals still low
Bank mortgage lending to people who are moving home is still down by a third on the same time a year ago, said the British Bankers' Association (BBA). The figures confirm the continuing downturn in the property market. Banks lent 43,870 mortgages to home movers in February, slightly more than in January, but 33% down on last year. People who do not move, but change their mortgages to more favourable deals, now account for nearly half of all new mortgages granted by banks. .
UPDATE: 99% Of Maturing Fixed-Rate CMBS Refinanced - Fitch
Despite the credit crunch and liquidity pressures in the capital markets, 99% of maturing fixed-rate mortgages were refinanced in recent months, Fitch Ratings said. The ratings agency said 3,354 U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities fixed-rate loans with a balance of $21.4 billion have been refinanced since Aug. 1, when the credit crunch began. "The diversity of property type and geographic distribution of recent refinancing activity shows that debt capital is still widely available for commercial real estate," said Susan Merrick, Fitch's head of U.S. CMBS. Fitch attributed the spate of refinancings amid a restrictive lending environment to "low leverage and high existing coupons." New lenders are typically insurance companies and regional banks, the agency noted.
Cleveland Fed chief lays out U.S. financial problems
The housing boom and bust, changes in the structure of the mortgage markets and the role of highly leveraged financial institutions have all added to the current financial turmoil the U.S. is facing, said Sandra Pianalto, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Pianalto addressed the current financial situation and the Federal Reserve's role in helping survive financial distress during the University of Dayton's eighth-annual Student Investment RISE Forum Thursday at UD Arena. "The financial markets are undergoing a great deal of stress and it's a challenging and interesting time to be policy makers," she said. Pianalto said the housing boom and bust is not unusual at a local or regional level. For example, in the early 1990's, Massachusetts and California saw foreclosure rates rise and remain high while housing prices fell for several years.
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