Opportunities are far better, they say, in diversified banks that do a brisk mortgage business but do not depend on mortgages for the bulk of their revenues.
Of that $5.61 million, more than half, $3.08 million, came from the FIRE category — finance, insurance and real estate (the real estate industry is part of this group because it depends on mortgage financing).
Hometrack predicts equity-rich households that do not depend on getting big mortgages to buy homes could continue to put upward pressure on prices in localised markets in 2010, after pushing up prices in southern England in particular this year.
"It depends on the mortgage holders and Uncle Sam [to whom the theater owes considerable back taxes]," he says.
As to whether this makes good financial or even familial sense, the answers depend on such vagaries as mortgage rates, taxes, resale values and a student's willingness to tell his roommate that anger management doesn't mean punching a hole in the wall.
David Hollingworth, of mortgage broker London & Country, says deciding whether or not to increase your mortgage may depend on what the money's for .The danger is that having cleared the other debts there is a temptation to slip back into old habits, and start using cards that have just been cleared," he warns.
Some of them, who had depended on refinancing mortgages to provide cash to spend, had no choice but to reduce spending.
Indeed, numerous risk managers inside Wall Street reportedly warned their institutions of these risks, but were ignored by bankers whose enormous bonuses depended on peddling mortgage-backed securities and derivatives.
Did my mortgage really depend on these two bands of gristle?
