Moving Home with Charlie

Inflation is up, with CPI at 3.5% for September and a November rate rise looking nailed on. Government borrowing is running far beyond forecast, a record for September apart from Covid, with total debt past £3 trillion, which unsettles the bond market and mortgage rates. Job vacancies fell 21,000 to 691,000, the lowest since 2014, with unemployment at 4.7% and Barclays cutting 5,000 jobs. 41% of homes for sale in England have had a price cut, as sellers chase the market down. Mortgage deals n...

5 Fact Friday for 23 October 2026. 41% of homes for sale in England have now had a price cut, two in five sellers chasing the market down, but are they too late? Plus inflation up to 3.5% in September pushing rates higher, government borrowing of £24.5bn in September with total debt now over £3 trillion, job vacancies down to 691,000 with unemployment at 4.7%, and the average mortgage deal now lasting just 13 days compared with 43 in 2019. Live questions from viewers too. Links to all source...

One week until the Budget, I went live to take your questions. I started with the latest borrowing figures: the government borrowed another £24.5 billion in September, and interest on our national debt is now £11 billion a month, which is more than it would cost to scrap stamp duty on main homes for a whole year. With inflation up again and a base rate rise likely in November, uncertainty is only going one way, so I set out exactly what I would do right now to make a move more certain as a se...

Tonight I went live on Rightmove's u-turn on house prices. After months of headlines about record asking prices, Rightmove now says September 2026 was the busiest month for asking price reductions since 2011, with just over 3,000 listings a day being cut, and that homes priced competitively from the start sell far faster. I explained why that message comes too late for many sellers this year, why buyers set prices, why overpricing pushes buyers away for good, and whether now is a good time to...

Sources for every fact: https://mhwc.co.uk/blog/5-fact-friday-16th-october-2026/ Mortgage rates are still climbing, with five-year fixes averaging 6% and two-year fixes almost 6%, and the gap between the asking price of listings and the asking price of homes that sell is 17.8%. Viewings per property have halved in two years. Connells found sellers with upfront search packs had 43% fewer fall-throughs and exchanged 37% faster. The gap between new listings and agreed sales hit a 12-month high,...