In this review,we will recap for your benefit the important developments for the past week.

- Plenty of people are sticking to SVR mortgages because they look low compared tofixed-rate mortgage, especially tracker mortgages that are tied to the current Bank of England rate of 0.5 percent. In the opinion of Nationwide, borrowers like the current variable rate mortgages which on average are currently about 1.5 percent lower than fixed-rate mortgages. Read on.........

-Moneyfacts.co.uk., the financial information web site, has published figures that show that the state funded banks are charging taxpayers higher than average mortgage rates. The website says that it believes that these banks are placing a higher priority on exiting state ownership rather than charge competitive rates to the taxpayers who helped bail them out. Read on........ -

-A study published by property website Zoopla.co.uk. shows that buyers on an average income can afford 58 percent of UK homes .A home is considered to be affordable if one third of the average income can cover the mortgage payments. The website has worked out an affordability rate based on average income and average house price at present mortgage rates and an LTV of 75 percent.Read on .........

-Northern Rock has reported much lower pre-tax losses of £257.2 million for the year 2009 as against £1.3 billion for the previous year. Alastair Darling, the Chancellor, now says to that it is not impossible that the taxpayers would see a profit from the "good" part of Northern Rock and the winding down of the old mortgage assets.Read on......

-The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the association that represents most of the mortgage lenders in the UK, has reported that re mortgages in January 2010 were 15 percent down on December 2009 and 47 percent down on January 2009. A total of 24,000 remort as ages with an average deal of £125,000 were sold In that month. A CML spokesman said “The average SVR has fallen from 4.9% to 3.62%. When people reach the end their fixed-rate deals and look at the costs, they find it may be a better option to go onto the SVR and sit there.” Read on........

-Lloyds Banking Group has today launched a new scheme that encourages customers to overpay mortgages by up to 20 percent without any penalties or charges. The scheme will be operated up to 31st of March 2011 and is designed to let customers take advantage of the current low mortgage rates. Mortgage payments (principal plus interest) accounted for 32 percent of average take-home pay in the fourth quarter of 2009 against 47 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Read on........

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