U.K. Housing Market Also Slowing Down

London, England, April 29, 2008--The number of home mortgages approved in the U.K. in March was the lowest number in 15 years of record keeping, according to the The Bank of England.

The bank said the 64,000 mortgages was 44 percent below the level a year earlier.

Those mortgages were worth 9.3 billion pounds (US$18.5 billion euro11.8 billion), down from 10.4 billion pounds (US$20.7 billion euro13.2 billion) in February and also in January.

"The bad news on the housing market just keeps on coming," said Howard Archer, chief European economist at Global Insight.

He said that the low level of mortgage activity is due to both price pressures, tighter credit, and higher required deposits.