Times up.
UK mortgage equity release figures soar - Times Online
This time last year this article says:
UK mortgage equity release figures soar
Householders are taking cash out of the rising equity in their homes at the fastest rate for two-and-a-half years
House price rises and a squeeze on disposable incomes led to a steep increase in the amount of cash people took out of their homes last year to fund their spending.
The figures will worry hawks on the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, which meets this week to discuss interest rates. The MPC is widely expected to keep rates on hold this month, although economists are predicting another increase before the summer.
Figures from the Bank of England showed that mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW) rose to £14.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006, up from £12.2 billion in the previous three months.
For the full year, MEW totalled £49.7 billion in 2006, up from £36.6 billion in 2005. Economists said that the increase helped to bolster spending on the high street amid slower growth of unsecured debt.
Do you see?
In 2006 people took £36.6 billion out of their homes and spent it on stuff. In 2007 they did the same until Northern Rock exploded.
That money, magically conjured from the thin air of a house price bubble, is now gone. Its not being replaced by anything. Nothing. Nowt.
The party is over. The booze has run out. The police are coming up the driveway and Mum and Dad are home soon.
£10's of BILLIONS of pounds of consumer spending WILL NOT HAPPEN this year nor next from the heart attack that the MEW god has suffered. Quite a bit of that spending was on air fares.
This has all happened before. People here were warning you. Perhaps you thought that, this time, its different.
?