Brendan Burgess
Founder
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Restructured Mortgages
The Central Bank's restructuring data is difficult to analyse or understand
For example it gives separate figures for "term extension" and "reduced payment" which is effectively the same thing.
When these figures are published, there is now a tradition of some commentator or other pointing out that although the figures in arrears is worrying, we shouldn’t forget that 90%+ of mortgage accounts are being repaid without incident in accordance with the terms of the loan. This viewpoint is to my mind akin to saying that we only had 11 homicides in Q3,2011 in Ireland and the vast majority of the 4.6m in the State wasn’t murdered, that there were 28 Tiger Kidnap offences but again 4.6m people weren’t kidnapped or that 630 people were sexually assaulted but most weren’t. There is a reason we concentrate on mortgage arrears, and on a human level it is because most represent difficult and worrying conditions for those affected and we don’t want a society where a large proportion of people face losing their homes. Economically it means those affected are unlikely to be spending in the economy and they are a drag on banks, which in turn affects credit availability in the economy.
Hi benji
I hadn't seen anyone else other than myself reporting it this way. I am delighted to hear that "some commentators" agree with me.
The extraordinary thing is that despite
only 8% of mortgages are in arrears over 90 days.
- 14% unemployment
- reduced salaries for those in work
- Increased taxes for everyone
- widespread irresponsible lending
- and a 50% crash in house prices
and there is less than one chance in 1,000 of someone losing their home.
Considering these figures, which are surprising, why do you think so much time is spent on various media outlets portraying Ireland housing crisis as the worst thing that has ever happened this country?
Just that doom & gloom makes good news programming?
Hence my earlier point....In general, we don't really do evidence-based analysis in this country.
Losing one's home isn't a random event, so assigning a probability to it doesn't really make too much sense in this context.and there is less than one chance in 1,000 of someone losing their home.
Yes, that certainly is worrying. Not too much scope for interest rate rises.When I point out that the repayments that most people are making now are far lower than when they took out their mortgage, no one wants to know.
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