Hi there, welcome to the last Levy Letter of the week. I hope you had a good week with us. Youve certainly been very busy with the emails and answer phone messages. Many thanks for keeping in touch with us. Its great to hear what you think of the programme and what you think about the stories weve been doing this week.
Houses Of course you know Im interested in whats happening in the housing market at the moment. For such a long time, all I could say was how astonishing it was that house prices kept rising and rising. Well, not so any more. Today, I read that the number of properties repossessed by mortgage lenders in the UK rose by 41% in the first half of this year. The council of Mortgage Lenders said repossessions rose to 18,900 from 13,400 in the second half of last year. And weve all heard about the credit crunch, but the sharp rise in the number of repossessions has been down to the economic slowdown making it harder for some homeowners to repay their mortgages. Its very worrying times Im sure for many homeowners at the moment. Repossessions have been rising since the second half of 2004, but have now begun to accelerate, along with the number of borrowers in arrears. The number of mortgage holders behind in payments rose by 20% to 155,600 in the first half of the year, compared with ! the second half of 2007. So there you go worrying times Im sure. Let me know what you think about this. Are you a homeowner struggling with your mortgage repayments? Get in touch in the usual way - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Camping Putting your tent up in the rain, cooking in one saucepan on a little gas hob and sharing your sleeping bag with a spider none of which sounds very appealing to me for a summer holiday. But with the credit crunch well and truly hitting the UK, evidence is showing that thousands more families are choosing camping holidays in Britain over expensive foreign breaks this summer. Are you one of them? But the traditional leaky tent might be a thing of the past with the rise of luxury camping sites! These can include tents with log fires, beds and electricity. So you can take your hairdryer and phone charger! Across the UK, more and more of these boutique camp sites are becoming available. With electricity points, I suppose you can even take your TV with you! Well, with all that luxury, in my mind you may as well be in a hotel! But each to their own! Harry Potter Shes done it again. J K Rowling has broken yet more records. A book featuring a new Harry Potter story has become the fastest-selling collection of short stories of all time in the UK. Wow. Do you think people are quite sad now that the Harry Potter series has come to an end? Whats Your Story contains thirteen short stories by many different authors, but I think many people will have been interested in the untitled prequel of Harry Potter set three years before his birth. More than ten thousand copies were bought on its first day of release with some shops sold out by lunchtime! Well, that's it from me for this week. I hope you can join me tomorrow for the big event in Hulls Queen Victoria Square for Last Choir Standing. I hope to see you there about 3pm! Have a great weekend, Peter Your email address will be held by the BBC and kept confidential, and will only be used in relation to this newsletter. You will be given the option to unsubscribe from this newsletter each time you receive it. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
