Blackburn tops Fastest Mortgage League

Posted: 17 May 2006 10:08:32 GMT

New research has found that homeowners in Blackburn are closer to paying off their mortgages than anyone else in the UK.

The figures from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) indicate that the average local homeowner wage is £18,356 in Blackburn, while the average property price is £89,982.

Based on the fact that the average UK homeowner spends approximately 18.5 per cent of their income on mortgage repayment, RBS has calculated that the average Blackburn resident has just eight years and two months of repayment remaining.

Unsurprisingly, many of the towns and cities with the lowest repayment periods are in the north of England thanks to the lower house prices.

But the situation is slightly more complicated than this, as typified by the fact that Preston homeowners have an average of 18 years remaining before they achieve outright ownerships, despite the fact that it lies just a few miles from Blackburn.

The same is true in the Midlands, where homeowners in Wolverhampton have just 13 years remaining but those in Worcester are expecting 23 years before the mortgage is paid off.

Around three-quarters of outright homeowners said that paying off their mortgage was the single-most important thing that they have ever done in terms of achieving contentment and security.


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