At the moment I am sitting in Houston Texas where they have just experienced something extremely unusual, a snowstorm. There were alot of very excited people yesterday taking pictures and the TV dubbed it “Blizzard 2009″ with almost blanket coverage. Today, though things have calmed down and I have been trying to make sense of what the rest of the news is all about.
Talk on the economy has really been dwarfed this week by, of all things, and as our waitress this morning so eloquently put it, by Tiger bloody Woods. Seriously, it is wall to wall coverage now the blizzard is done.
Forgive me people for I have sinned! It has been far too long since my last confession, sorry, I mean blog post! In the meantime I have been through quite a bit, what with turning 40 yesterday (I know I don’t look it), and experiencing the general ups and downs of life and the mortgage industry, (more in a separate posting).
I have been paying alot of attention to the mortgage and financial press as you would expect, reading with both amusement, hearty agreement and utter despair some of the comments with regards to FSA regulation, self-certification, the behaviour of lenders and brokers, the proposed breakup up of some of our much maligned banking institutions, whilst also watching the pleasing plethora of new rates flooding the market.
Last week I found myself on stage as part of a panel addressing 50 of Australia’s top mortgage brokers who were interested in how their own impending regulation will impact them. What they soon realised, a year after Lehman’s went, (a year tomorrow 15th actually), was just how lucky they have been and how hard things have been here.
As I am sure you can imagine, the Aussies were not shy in coming forward and the questions were fast, furious, incisive and intelligent. I was very grateful to have met such a great bunch of people and whilst I left with visions of answering the phone Coreco Sydney in my beach wear and thongs it was a sharp reminder how a year ago we all seemed to fall off a cliff with no parachute.
Yesterday the main news was all about the fact that the UK’s obsession with borrowing seems to be at an end, or at least put very firmly on ice. The latest figures showed that for the first time since records began in 1993, debt repayments outstripped borrowing.
The Evening Standard called this an historic “Micawber Moment”, after the Dickens character in David Copperfield who “lectures on the benefits of financial prudence”.
We have Bloomberg news on in our office, as obviously we like to keep up to date with the latest financial news, (or is it because it is one of only 3 channels we can access? – you decide), but it is very informative. The other day an excited American boomed, “this is not just green shoots we are seeing here, but real flower buds now!”.
It was said with such an air of confidence that you could not help yourself but be carried away on a euphoric wave of good feeling – hell, I almost pledged my allegiance to the American flag, (though I didn’t).
Andrew Montlake, Communications Director at Coreco and ‘Mortgage Personality of the Year 2008’, gives his views — honest and no holds barred — on the latest developments within the mortgage and property markets.
