Nationwide Building Society annouced a reduction today to some of its fixed rate and tracker mortgage deals which will take effect from 9 July. The new rates put the cost of a two-year fix from 6.58% (with £599 fee) or 6.98% with no fee, while a newly-launched two-year tracker will be available from 5.98% (with a £599 fee) or from 5.78% with a £1,499 fee.

Bradford & Bingley has confirmed it is going ahead with its rights issue, revised again back up to £400 million from £258 million with the backing of major UK-based shareholders, including M&G Investment Managers, Legal & General Investment Management, Insight Investment and Standard Life Investments, with an unchanged price of 55p per share.

It's now a buyer's market and nowhere more so than in the property auction rooms, where savvy investors are snapping up bargains at up to 30 per cent below estate agent prices. In the past, buyers inspired by TV shows such as Homes under the Hammer were happy to bid to levels similar to those properties being sold through estate agents. But according to auction information company, Essential Information Group (EIG), around 48 per cent of lots are not selling, leading to a significant fall in prices.

They Bank of England's Credit Conditions Survey says lenders will put a further squeeze on the availablility of home loans until September, and the number of borrowers expected to default on their mortgages is predicted to rise.

Experts argue that equity release provides an attractive option for asset rich, income poor pensioners looking to release capital in a falling houseing market. But housing values and age longevity could conspire to produce, ultimately, a very bad deal with nothing left to pass on to dependants.

Fitting burglar alarms and locks to doors and windows is common sense, yet 11% of people still leave their front door wide open to burglars each year, according to recent research from Newcastle Building Society.

The amount of money borrowed by people cashing in on the increased value of their homes has fallen, according to figures from the Bank of England. Equity withdrawal - the amount of mortgage borrowing not used to buy or improve houses - fell from £7.4 billion in Q4 2007 to £5.0 billion in Q1 2008.

Despite the uncertainty in the housing market, 3.25 million of us plan to move home over the next year or so, according to research from Alliance & Leicester (A&L). While the number may be a bit of a shock, it certainly isn't a surprise to learn that while waiting to put their home on the market, many would-be movers plan to improve their home to make it more attractive to potential buyers and get the best price. Before you start knocking walls down or converting the loft, you need to find out what buyers are looking for and what will add to the value of the property.

The number of people that would opt for a five-year mortgage fix remains strong at 27 per cent of homeowners while one-in-ten people would now choose to fix for ten years or longer, according to the Abbey Remortgage Index. Demand for two-year mortgage fixes is at its lowest level since March.

Nationwide Building Society claims the pace of house price falls slowed significantly in June. House prices fell by 0.9% during the month, less than half of the rate of the 2.5% fall recorded in May. House prices in June are now 6.3% lower than this time last year and have fallen 7.3% from their peak last October.

Tuesday, 1 July 2008 marks the first anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places in England and Wales - and smokers who quit this time last year can now cash in by re-broking their lif insurance policies Re

House prices fell for the ninth month in a row in June, according to the latest national housing market survey from Hometrack, the housing intelligence business.

An increasing number of residential landlords believe that tenant demand will continue to grow over the next 12 months as the housing market remains subdued.

In May 2008, Chartered Surveyors e.surv recorded a 26% year-on-year rise in the number of requests for valuations it carried out on repossessed property, commenting it had seen a sustained and steady growth in the volumes for the past two years, but there had been a "clear acceleration since January 2008". Allsop, the UK's largest property auctioneer, has reported a rise in repossessed properties in its February 2008 sales, a significant number of which have come from buy-to-let investors.

Latest data from the Land Registry (May) shows monthly house prices in England & Wales flat (after seasonal adjustments). But the year-on-year price change, at 1.8%, marks the 9th straight month the annual figure has decreased.

Alliance & Leicester has launched a new 2-year tracker mortgage.

Three quarters of people expect property prices to fall over the next twelve months, according to the first quarterly Price Tracker survey by the Building Societies Association (BSA).

Thousands of homebuyers are waiting up to 120% longer than a year ago - as much as 24 days more - for essential information relating to the purchase of their property, according to new research . So says property data company, OneSearch Direct, which compiled the information from local authorities.

Rental yields rose in May to their highest level since the start of 2006, hitting 6.4%, according to Paragon Mortgages' latest Buy-to-Let Index.

Utility bills for 2008 look to be a painful two-thirds more than their equivalents in 2007. Experts are already predicting a further rise of 40% this year - on top of existing increases, which have taken the cost of household gas and electricity to record levels and risk leaving 6.1 million in "fuel poverty".

Latest data (June) from property website, Rightmove, shows the number of homes for sale now outnumbering buyers by a ratio of 15:1. That's more than double the rate 12 months ago and reflects the mortgage famine that now appears to be hitting home, literally.

Another month passes and news filtering out from the housing and mortgage markets continues to paint a downbeat picture.

Recent falls in house prices and more drops expected in the future are giving rise to fears about a return of negative equity from the grave. It was only back in the early 1990s that it reared its ugly head for the first time on a national scale in recent memory, resulting in an unprecedented number of home possessions by lenders. Some homeowners ended up both homeless and in debt with a shortfall to repay on their mortgage. I

House prices are set to fall by up to 9% this year, according to Britain's biggest mortgage lender, HBOS.

Yorkshire Building Society has announced the launch of two new mortgages - the 2-year and 5-year fixed rate deals both charging 5.99%. And coming with fees of £1,995 and £2,495 respectively.