| From Timesonline.co.uk: The housing market slump will wipe £50,000 off the value of the average British home and plunge one in seven homeowners into negative equity, influential new research suggests.
Some 70,000 mortgage-holders already owe more than their homes are worth after the near-10 per cent falls in house prices over the past year, Standard & Poor's (S&P), the credit ratings agency, said. It forecasts that prices will fall by a further 17 per cent, or £30,000, by next April, putting 1.7 million borrowers into negative equity. A 17 per cent fall in prices would take the value of the average house to about £150,000, down from £199,600 in August last year, according to Halifax figures. S&P said that for every further percentage point decline in house prices, between 60,000 and 180,000 extra homeowners could fall into negative equity.
The news came as a poll showed that consumer confidence had tumbled to a 34-year low. The GfK/NOP index measuring attitudes to personal finances and Britain's economy fell to -39 this month, down from -34 in June and the lowest level recorded since the series began in 1974..... Full Article: Source
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