The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
Estate agents are recording the lowest level of sales since 1978. Photo: Getty
Estate agents are selling an average of just one home a week as the number of sales hits a 30-year low, according to a report today.
The latest monthly snapshot of the housing market by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said it had stalled in August as a result of a continued lack of finance for mortgages and uncertainty over stamp duty.
NEW YORK–Americans’ percentage of equity in their homes has fallen below 50% for the first time on record since 1945, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
Homeowners’ percentage of equity slipped to a revised lower 49.6% in the second quarter of 2007, the central bank reported in its quarterly U.S. Flow of Funds Accounts, and declined further to 47.9% in the fourth quarter — the third straight quarter it was under 50%. That marks the first time homeowners’ debt on their houses exceeds their equity since the Fed started tracking the data in 1945.