Mortgage approvals - the decline continues

Today, the British Bankers Association published their November mortgage approvals data. The data still has the power to shock. In November, banks approved only 17 thousand loans. Before the credit crunch, the banks were approving over three times that number.

We are now almost 18 months into the credit crunch, and despite bank rescues, negative interest rates, and government guarantees, nothing has revived the lending business. The reason isn't to hard to find; the mortgage securitization business is dead. When it died, it killed the mortgage lending business.

So, the UK housing crash continues. How far will prices fall next year? I reckon we are looking at another 10 percent decline by end-2009.