This week, it’s 2009.
- Average house price: £162,103
- Base rate at year-end: 0.5%
- House price inflation: 0.2%
- General inflation: 2.17%
- Oscar Best Picture winner: Slum Dog Millionaire
- Best-selling album: I dreamed a dream, Susan Boyle
- Must-have Christmas toy: Go Go Pet Hamsters
- Christmas number one: Killing in the Name, Rage Against the Machine
Mortgage/housing market highlights
The Guardian brought in the new year with warnings of the grim times ahead as the country continued to struggle through the financial crisis. It described the impending year as ‘brutal’ following figures from Halifax which showed house prices dropped more than expected at the end of 2008, a monthly decline of 2.2% and 16.2% lower than a year earlier. The house price-to-earnings ratio was at its lowest level for five-and-a-half years at 4.4 times down from six previously.
A unanimous vote by the Monetary Policy Committee saw the base rate drop from 1% to 0.5% were it has remained to date. Politicians spoke of a government ‘paralysed’ and a ‘complete collapse’ of the mortgage market. A discussion paper on the proposed Mortgage Market Review was published in October but the final rules did not emerge until 2012. The residential construction sector was on its knees. There were 114,100 housing starts, both private and public in 2009 and 158,300 completions – compared to 233,700 starts and 226,500 completions in 2007. Meanwhile, Kensington relaunches lending, introducing self-employed mortgages on one year’s accounts
January – Barack Obama took office as the 44th President of the United States.
US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing into the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. All passengers and crew members survive.
Lloyds TSB completed the acquisition of the Halifax Bank of Scotland group
February – Adele wins a Grammy for Please Read The Letter
April – The World Health Organisation declares the outbreak of swine flu as a global pandemic. Reports of deaths due to the H1N1 influenza strain were first thought to be around 18,500 but analysis released in 2013 stated this was a vast underestimation suggesting the figure was in excess of 200,000.
June – Michael Jackson dies, aged 50, in strange circumstance sparking worldwide displays of grief.
September – 90s singer Peter Andre divorced glamour model Katie Price due to unreasonable behaviour after three years of marriage.
October – The Evening Standard becomes a free newspaper in central London.
November – Scientists find water on the moon during NASA’s Lcross misson. At least 26 gallons of water were found which demonstrates the possibility of sustaining human life there.
And that was the year that was 2009.
