Mortgage market update from Twenty7tec (Source: www.money.usnews.com)
Twenty7tec has long been a part of the mortgage and protection industry, researching, recording, and offering free of charge statistics and information about finance and financial institutions for borrowers and brokers alike. Regularly they carry out their own research into mortgage search queries and release the data to the general public so that we can get an idea what is happening in the mortgage market.
As we all know by now, the last three months or so have been a very challenging time for mortgages as rates have gone up significantly and a lot of people have been discouraged from taking out finance for the foreseeable future. The data released by Twenty7tec clearly re-iterates what everyone in the industry already expected. Search for mortgages across all areas have dropped significantly. However, is the future as bleak as these figures look?
Here Is A Round-up Of What The Twenty7tec Mortgage Market Update Found:
Mortgage Searches-
- November 2022 purchase mortgage searches were down 9.2% on the prior month.
- November 2022 remortgage searches were down 17.1% on the prior month.
- Total mortgage searches in November 2022 were down 13.1% on the prior month.
- Total First-Time Buyer mortgage searches were down 7.2% on the prior month.
- The average property valuation for purchases (£333,951) was down 1.4% on the prior month.
- The average loan required (£230,128) was down 1.3% on the prior month
- November 2022 was the ninth-busiest month ever for total mortgage searches (October and September were the two busiest ever months).
- Total mortgage searches in November 2022 were 85.85% of the high mark set in September 2022.
- Total searches for fixed products continued to drop in November 2022, but tracker searches more than doubled (up 108%) compared to September 2022.
- Green mortgages have been less popular over the past two months, threatening the route to net zero. In part, this is because green BTL mortgages have been driving growth and total BTL mortgage searches are at their lowest real terms levels in six months.
ESIS Documents-
- For the third month in a row, remortgage ESIS documents produced outnumbered purchase ESIS documents, but the gap is narrowing.
Purchase v remortgage-
- The month averaged 54:46 for purchase v remortgages compared to 52:48 in October.
Products-
- The month ended with over 13,000 products and variants available, up 18.98% compared to the end of the prior month.
What Do The Mortgage Advisors Think?
Well, these figures certainly aren’t fantastic but not unexpected. It is clear to pretty much everyone in the mortgage industry that new enquiries have gone down significantly over the last few months, almost entirely as a result of mortgage rates going up. A lot of potential new buyers have decided to hold off their mortgage search until they feel that the market is more stable, and rates go down.
And who can blame them? For people who already have a fixed mortgage with several years left on it, we don’t blame you either. Why would you look at switching products immediately if you still have 2 or 3 years to go. However, for those mortgage owners who have 18 months or less to go on your mortgage, you really need to start speaking to an advisor to plan for when you come off your current deal.
Although mortgage rates are coming down, more products are entering the mortgage market and 2023 looks like it will shape up to be a generally good year for mortgages, you still need to think about your financial security. A lot of people will currently have mortgage products between 1 and 3% which are probably very manageable, however this won’t be the case when the product ends. Now you could be looking at anyway between 5 and 8% rates with only a handful currently offering lower than 5%. These rates should continue to drop but chances are, your monthly payment will go up.
Give Us A Call
Now is not the time to sit on your hands and wait for things to get worse, by speaking to an advisor nice and early to form a plan of action and secure the most competitive rate possible, you will ensure your financial security. Give our team a call today to see how we can help.
