The credit crunch affected the home loan sectors of remortgages, mortgages and secured homeowner loans to an enormous extent.

Homeowner loans dropped to less than 20% of their level that they were at before the recession.

Before the recession homeowner loans were an extremely popular way for a homeowner to borrow for any number of purposes virtually to buy anything from a needle to a haystack.

A common purpose of the secured loan apart fro home improvements , car or boat purchase, etc. was for debt consolidation. This is when credit cards debts, personal loans, etc. are all rolled into the one and replaced with a single low interest repayment in the shape of a secured loan. A secured loan at about 9% takes the place of credit cards costing from normally about 20% to even double that. The savings by using a secured loan for debt consolidation is apparent.

Another financial product that dropped dramatically was mortgages which is what people need to buy a property unless they are cash buyers and these are few and far between. Many preferred to remain in the same property rather than move due to uncertainty about job security, etc. Mortgages were also affected by the fall in the price of properties.

Most homeowners are tied to their mortgage for anything from twelve to sixty months after which many used to change their mortgage lender.

The changing of mortgage from one provider to another is what is called a remortgage and remortgages were normally sought to obtain a lower rate of interest, as rates vary greatly between one mortgage provider and the other.

Remortgages can also be taken out for a greater amount to raise funds for almost any purpose just like secured loans

With the fall in house prices many homeowners could no longer obtain a remortgage at a really good rate of interest as low rates depend on the equity on a property.

It was believed that the end of the recession would see secured loans, mortgages and remortgages returning to something of their former glory but this hope has been false.

The reality is that house prices are on the verge of falling again, mortgages are at their lowest ebb for nine years and remortgages are at their lowest for ten years with secured loans seeing no improvement.