You can’t open a paper, go online or turn on the TV at the moment, without hearing about or seeing something about mortgages. In the US, it all started with sub-prime and here in the UK, the knock on effect began with Northern Rock. (I quite like that our government now owns a bank called Northern Rock, it sounds kinds cool, like a music festival!) The images of crowds outside a bank made it all seem a bit ominous. Bad news was surely coming for us all.

So now, seven months later what has actually happened? Banks and building societies giving out mortgages, have tightened up. House prices have fallen by 2.5%, it’s harder to get credit and 100% mortgages are now, as of this week, a thing of the past.  That’s about it. The Northern Rock disaster rocks on. It’s cost us about £1,700 per household but we don’t actually notice that. It’s a heap less than a war costs anyway.

So what’s the net effect on our lives? If you are young and looking to buy a house, well the prices have come down a bit, so you do stand a better chance. With no 100% mortgages available, people have to save for a deposit. That’s no bad thing. If you use credit, it just got cheaper and mortgage rates have dropped.

Unless you bought  property on a 100% (or even more) mortgage and you find yourself with negative equity and you have to move, it doesn’t look to me like such bad news.  I just got a letter to tell me my mortgage payments have gone down about £60 per month. That’s free money, yippee!

The fact that credit is harder to come by and borrowing isn’t as easy as it has been, is good news. It may be difficult for some of us for a while, but that’s happened before and people still go about their lives, still share a laugh and still fall in love.

I hope that people remember the anticipation of saving up for something and the joy of finally having enough to get it. Deferred gratification is all the more fun for the deferment. What are you saving up for?