Forget the bank loan, look down the back of the sofa.

The latest Halifax research report reveals that a bank loan should only be contemplated after a good dig down the back of the family settee, because they reckon that over £43 million could be lost down amongst the cushions.

The research by the Halifax bank has found that 65% of Brits regularly dig out loose change from various hiding places; the sofa being one of the most nefarious for snaffling all of those loose coins. Topping the ‘league table’ of places where loose change is regularly found are pockets. 39% of Brits in the study claimed they found loose change regularly in their pockets, with the bottom of a bag coming in at 36%. The car and down the back of the sofa took the last two places.

The actual amounts of loose change are high; the study revealed that in a desk drawer, for example, the highest value of loose change is around £3.59. On average, the British estimate they have about £17.69 of loose change scattered around these various places.

The study also highlighted a difference between the two genders. Whilst the average minimum of change that a Brit would stop to pick off the street is 50p, this rises to 61p for men and falls to 47p for women. A generation difference has also been revealed, with the younger generation tending to turn their noses up at picking change up off the street that isn’t more than 87p, whereas the older generation would pick up an average minimum of 24p.

In Yorkshire and Humberside, people don’t pick change off the street for nothing, and have an average minimum of 94p; just across the border in the North East, they are much less fussy, picking up a minimum average of 24p.

Three quarters of Brits save their change in one place; a jar full of coppers or a bag full of silver coins are a common sight in many British households according to this study.

“These figures prove that we should no longer ignore our loose change but manage these small sums more wisely. The old saying ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’ continues to be firmly the case. We need to recognise this, instead of leaving our loose change languishing down the back of the sofa” says Flavia Palacious Umana, Head of Products, Halifax savings, says.

So the advice from Halifax, and one can imagine from many of the country’s banks, is to take a dig around the back of your sofa or the floor of your car before considering taking out that bank loan; who knows how much you may find.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The latest annual Halifax Housing Review has revealed that house prices in rural areas have fallen by less than in urban areas over the past year.

The average rural house price drop has been 13%, whereas it’s 18% in urban areas. And the average rural house price of £203,5351 is now 21% higher than the average urban house price of £168,376 compared to 15% higher a year ago.

And, ironically, the falls, albeit less than in urban areas, has meant that the affordability of rural housing has improved over the last year.

The Halifax Housing Review Rural house prices in 2009 are, on average, just over six times average gross annual earnings – the lowest ratio since 2002. However, housing in rural areas still remains markedly less affordable than in urban areas. The average property price in rural areas is 6.3 times average annual earnings compared to a ratio of 5.2 in urban areas.

What’s more, some 27% of all home buyers with a mortgage in rural areas are first-time buyers, which is the highest proportion since 2000. Nonetheless, there are still far fewer first-time buyers in rural areas with first-time buyers accounting for 44% of all buyers in urban local authorities.

And the limited amount of social housing still remains a problem, with just 13% of the rural housing stock in England was social housing in 2008, compared with 19% in urban areas.

Suren Thiru, economist at Halifax, said:
“Homes in rural areas continue to command a marked premium over urban locations, partly reflecting the quality of life benefits that many people associate with living in the countryside. Higher prices, together with generally lower earnings, mean that housing in rural areas remains significantly less affordable than in urban areas. The difficulties this presents for households living in the countryside are further aggravated by the relatively low levels of social housing in rural areas.”

So, rural properties remain attractive, but only to those that can afford them, or indeed, can afford to live in areas where jobs are not close at hand. And with social housing still remaining a seemingly low priority in rural areas, and unemployment increasing throughout the UK, the situation is unlikely to change over the coming years.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Despite talk of low interest rates for the foreseeable future, those holding super-low tracker mortgages are being warned they will face dramatic rises in payments, some as much as £7,000 a year.

Many of those that took out tracker mortgages in 2007 have benefitted enormously from the recessionary low interest rate environment, much to the chagrin of the building societies and banks which originally wrote the business. But as these mortgages had a two-year break, they will default back to their lender’s standard rates. For example, on a £200,000 interest free loan, currently at 0%, but facing a hike to 3.5%, monthly repayments could rise by nearly £600, meaning some £7,000 extra in repayments over a year. On a £500,000 mortgage, this could mean a whopping £17,000 extra payments a year.

Economists think that interest rates could stay at 0.5% for at least another year.

Many with tracker mortgages at the Halifax face some of the biggest rises. Those who took out deals in the first half of 2007 which gave them a rate calculated at 0.51 points below the Bank rate, will be heading for a new rate of 3.5%; meaning an increase of hundreds of pounds a month.

Default rates differ from lender to lender. HSBC offer 2.89% on a two-year fixed deal, with there’s a hefty fee of £1,499. They also offer a five-year deal at 4.39%, with the lesser fee of £999. Cheltenham & Gloucester are currently at 2.5%, as is the Nationwide. The Council of Mortgage Lenders say the average is currently at just over 4%.

Guest Article by Neil Camp