MABS and IMHO reporting an increase in mortgage worries

[Brendan Burgess]

I met David Hall from the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation this morning and he said that while they had been letting staff go over the last couple of years, there has been a big increase in activity recently. The cost of living increases have made it difficult for people to keep up their mortgage repayments.

MABS has also noted an increase in activity. I am not sure if that is mortgages or debt generally.

The big driver of serious mortgage arrears is a loss of income through sickness or unemployment. Interest rate rises and cost of living increases may put people under pressure, but I doubt it will lead to a repeat of the last crisis.

With most people in positive equity, they will be more incentivised to pay their mortgage.

Brendan

 

[NoRegretsCoyote]

The big driver of serious mortgage arrears is a loss of income through sickness or unemployment.

Exactly. Full-time equivalent jobs fell by one sixth in Ireland 2008 to 2012, almost unprecedented for an industrialised economy in peacetime.


I just don't see a scenario where this happens again. A loss of real income due to inflation spread across all earners is just not going to lead to mass default they way hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs did.

 

[Pinoy adventure]

That’s never a good sign

 

[ClubMan]

he said that while they had been letting staff go over the last couple of years, there has been a big increase in activity recently.
MABS has also noted an increase in activity.

What's a "[big] increase"?
And what's the baseline activity from which they're judging the increase?
Obviously it's impossible to infer anything from such anecdotal comments.