Anyone looking for a mortgage – or paying their existing mortgage – may have been surprised as well as pleased by the Bank of England's unexpected announcement on Wednesday 8th October. The 0.5% 'emergency' base rate cut they announced was in itself surprising, and so was the timing: ordinarily, it was not due until the following day, but the BoE ended up holding a special meeting 'in advance of its normal schedule'. Given the ongoing financial crisis in mortgage markets and other credit markets, it is perhaps not too surprising that the BoE brought its meeting forward a bit. It's interesting to note that this 0.5% drop is the largest change since November 2001, as all increases and decreases since then have been a mere 0.25%. Therefore, the sheer size of the cut is unusual – but it is nowhere near as unusual as the global nature of the move. The Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, the US Federal Reserve, Sveriges Risk bank and the Swiss National Bank als
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get"