So you want a mortgage or a remortgage do you want a fixed rate to stabilise your payments for the next few years or are you willing to take a chance that rates may come down. Mortgages & Remortgages from lenders are currently harder to get to due the money markets drying up.

If you are looking for mortgages & remortgages deals then it’s a good idea to compare lenders costs and application fees. This is due to lenders offering what’s known as headline rates to entice buyers in. This is not necessarily the cheapest option. A good broker will break the costs down and explain which deal offers the overall deal.

Most people are searching the internet for brokers that can offer mortgages & remortgages quotes online. Whole of market mortgage brokers compare the best mortgage and remortgage products including deals exclusively available through mortgage brokers.

The number of mortgage approvals to first time buyers and home mover was at a record low last month as the banks struggled in the wake of the bad credit mortgages fiasco. Most buyers seem to be holding of making that move due to uncertainty in interest rates.

Only 42,088 mortgages were approved for first time buyer and home movers by banks in December, lower than at any time since records began in September 1997, figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) showed.

This news, will hopefully add to pressure for a base rate cut, comes as more high street banks move to increase rates on popular tracker mortgages — penalising borrowers hoping to benefit from future reductions.

Abbey have just increased their tracker mortgages no doubt most lenders are making increases now to hopefully make cuts after the Bank of England meet in February. Brittannia, Alliance & Leicester and Nationwide have also increased tracker rates.

For first time buyers now more than ever will a deposit be an essential part of arranging a mortgage and making it onto the first rung of the property ladder.

Many lenders have reduced the maximum loan to values ratios on many of the mortgage deals, since October last year the tightening of credit in the money markets has forced many lenders to increase deposits to ten percent.

Many high street lenders Abbey, Halifax and Nationwide still offer loans of up to 95 percent loan to value.

It’s the more cautious lenders that are tightening their belts.

Since last June, ten lenders have pulled out of the 100% mortgages loan to value market while 11 lenders have reduced their maximum loan to value on some or all of their range since December.

The main 100% mortgages lenders Northern Rock, Birmingham Midshires, Coventry and Mortgage Express are still offering deals with income multiples reduced to suit todays market.

Talks are taking place to privatise and secure the sale of 100% mortgages lender Northern Rock. At last it looks like the preferred option for the Northern Rock staff, share holders and mortgage brokers could be announced by the Chancellor Alistair Darling in the commons on Monday.

Speaking in China, Mr Brown said: “Now we’ve been presented with a report that we commissioned from Goldman Sachs and it gives us a number of options for the future.

“It’s right therefore to have the discussions with the private sector.

“All options, including public ownership, on the road to moving the firm back into the private sector are on the table and are available to the government.”

 Ever since the crisis happened 100% mortgages offered by Northern Rock have not been competitive within the market. Hopefully the new company will be able to offer a product that is still very much needed within todays first time buyer market.

The decision has been made by the Bank of England to keep rates at 5.5%. They have resisted pressure to make a change against growing pressure from retailers.

It must have been a tough decision with all the recent signs in consumer spending and the inflationary pressures. A rate cut could have lifted both consumer and general business confidence; it could also have risked fuelling price pressures growing on the back of higher energy and food bills. Npower increased its gas and electricity prices last month and warned other providers would follow suit.

The British Chambers of Commerce said the MPC had missed an important opportunity to underpin confidence and limit the damage to the economy.

“A modest interest rate cut would have alleviated the threats to the banking system and would have helped restore the smooth flow of credit in the economy,” said David Kern, economic adviser to the BCC.

Analysts are expecting the MPC to cut rates in February.