The Council of Mortgage Lenders has released mortgage arrears and repossession figures for the first quarter of 2010.The figures show that just under 253,000 mortgages were 3 months or more in arrears which equates to about 2.2% of all outstanding mortgages. 9800 properties were repossessed during the period, down from 10,600 in the last three months of 2009
Commenting on the figures Nick Pearson from debt solutions experts Baines and Ernst said “Although the number of repossession is thankfully reducing slowly, the underlying pattern is that the number of mortgage accounts in arrears remains virtually unchanged. It is worth bearing in mind that any increase in bank base rates will be serious news for many borrowers on variable interest rates who are already struggling to pay the mortgage.”