As home owners, we are spending less of our income on our mortgage debt than at any time over the last five years. This was reported on the Mortgage Strategy website, which said that the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has issued data on the subject.
This data shows that those paying a monthly mortgage need 10.6 per cent on average of their gross income to cover mortgage interest payments. This is for the month of November last year, which shows the figures down from 11.1 per cent in October.
According to the CML, this is the lowest debt figure since 1974, apart from a brief lapse in 1996.
For first-time buyers, the news is also good as their debt burden has also gone down from 15.1 per cent of gross income to 14.4 per cent for the same monitored period. This is the lowest debt burden for first-time buyers since May 2004.
Around 53,000 house purchase loans were taken out in November 2009, 66 per cent up on the same period the previous year, although down by 4 per cent on October. Loans for remortgaging purposes saw a 6 per cent drop from the previous month, falling to 31,000, which shows a year-on-year decline of 39 per cent.
Michael Coogan, director-general at the CML, said: ?It is encouraging to see that mortgage interest payments are so affordable for home movers and first-time buyers. But with substantial deposits still needed to secure a mortgage, the market will continue to be relatively restrained for some time to come.?
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