This is Money Blog

Web week: Landlords cling to buy-to-let optimism

Last week, Financial Mail offered a contrast to the financial gloom. Investors declared confidence that their bets on property-linked bonds would come good while landlords, undaunted by falling prices, claimed rising rents would still make their buy-to-let investments worthwhile.

The stories sparked fresh property debate on thisismoney. Gary from Peterborough spoke for the buy-to-let optimists: 'For professional landlords its great. House prices go down - rent goes up. House prices go up - fantastic.'

For the pesimists, Steve from Southampton disputed the limited land theory that suggests British house prices will always rise:  'It's amazing how many people don't "get" the housing market. It has nothing to do with supply and demand. Two things set the price of houses: availability of credit; price of credit.'

With banks still reluctant to lend and the possibility of inflation-busting interest rate rises, Steve's theory suggests further price falls. Most readers agreed in an online poll with more than 70% predicting lower prices by next summer.

Also popular last week was Financial Mail's report on theft of anything from car catalytic converters to vegetables due to the global commodities boom. Forget the swag bag - buying into this boom is easy. A range of exchange traded funds, known as ETFs, track anything from grain to gold prices while specialist funds, such as JPMF Natural Resources, continue to race ahead. See more at thisismoney.co.uk/commodities.

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, thisismoney.co.uk
(This column as also appears in the Mail on Sunday and aims to reflect the big issues and views of our readers)

Top 25 most read stories on thisismoney
(Only includes stories published in the past week)

1. 'I'm sticking with my house price gamble'
2. Commodity prices spark new crimewave
3. Car tax change: 9m motorists to pay more
4. Should you dive in to buy-to-let investing?
5. Economy fears grow as bears grip markets
6. Can you trust price comparison websites?
7. Brown: 'Stop wasting so much food'
8. Halifax: House prices fall £3,600 in June
9. Your guide to surviving the mad market
10. B&B in forefront as banks suffer a mauling
11. The top consistent savings accounts
12. Nationwide puts block on cash Isa transfers
13. Bosses give stark warning on UK economy
14. M&S profit alert puts Rose on the rack
15. UK in denial on housing, says prophet of fear
16. Money Mail: Our solution to Isa chaos
17. Industry slump brings recession closer
18. Banks face huge losses as they bail out B&B
19. Midas share tips: Imperial, Antrim
20. Meet the self-sufficient pensioner
21. Monday view: Property slump could be good news
22. Shares in B&B dive on fears for its future
23. Newspaper and magazine share tips
24. Kaupthing rises may signal fixed-rate peak
25. Bank keeps interest rates on hold at 5%

Web week: Beware of stock market predictions

Nicola Horlick is feted as the City 'superwoman' for balancing a high profile career with bringing up a large family. This week, her warning of up to three years of falling stock markets turned heads (the story originated on trade website Citywire and was picked up by the Telegraph, Evening Standard and Radio 4 Today programme - 2 July). But is it worth listening?

Horlick built her reputation by turning around Morgan Greenfell bank. She hit the headlines in 1997 when, with her job under threat, she flew to the company's Frankfurt HQ to confront the management. She then launched SG, a UK arm of French bank SocGen. The business grew rapidly but Horlick’s funds underperformed after she made big bets in 2001 long before the bottom of the market. She now runs her own hedge fund company Bramdean (See our archive of Nicola Horlick stories).

Horlick’s corporate track record is revered; her market call credentials are less clear. So if not her, who should we listen to?

Alas even highly regarded stock-pickers have had a bad year – funds run by bearish Neil Woodford at Invesco Perpetual and bullish Bill Mott at Psigma have fallen faster than the wider market.

Even Warren Buffett, the legendary US investor, has seen his assets drop 20% against a 15% fall in US shares so far this year.

So in the absence of crystal balls and super heroes, remember advice that has helped investors keep their nerve before. Shares nearly always deliver the highest returns over 10-year spells. So keep saving steadily, in cheap funds such as trackers, oh, and ignore all predictions. (Don't miss our eight-steps to fixing all your finances).

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, thisismoney.co.uk
(Web Week also appears in the Mail on Sunday each week. It aims to reflect the big issues and often includes the views of This is Money readers)

Most popular news stories and features published since July 1 2008

1. Horlick: 'Avoid shares for three years'
2. HBOS rights issue: 'Don't participate'
3. Savers to have first £50,000 protected
4. Midas share tips: HBOS rights issue
5. Where is Warren Buffett buying now?
6. HBOS rights issue likely to fall flat
7. House prices fall £11,500 in a year
8. Bank deputy: A year of hardship ahead
9. BoE: Mortgages for homebuyers dive 64%
10. Should I sell or rent out my flat?
11. Market report: Tuesday
12. Market report: Monday
13. Market report: Wednesday
14. Cost of retirement hits '£413,000'
15. Fears for pensions after £30bn FTSE fall
16. HSBC may repossess own head office
17. Halifax offers stunning '12%' on savings
18. What now for with-profits windfalls?
19. Sunday newspaper share tips
20. HBOS rights issue gets green light
21. The house that lost 40% in four months
22. Analysis: FTSE at 5000 - a real possibility
23. B&B bosses may pay price for 'stitch-up'
24. HSBC may repossess own head office
25. What do I do with a £70,000 lump sum?

Most popular money stories in June 2008

June is normally a quiet month for finance. Not in the credit crunch. More than 1m visitors came to This is Money during the month, up 35% on a year ago. See the most popular reports from This is Money in June, including news, features, guides and expert answers...

1. Interest rates: News and predictions
2. B&B: What does it mean to you?
3. Ten steps to reclaim unfair bank charges
4. Halifax offers stunning '12%' on savings
5. Look up your new road tax
6. Easy steps to getting the best Isa
7. Advice for Bradford & Bingley customers
8. Bank charge letter templates
9. The house that lost 40% in four months
10. Midas share tips: Halifax Bank of Scotland
11. Is it time to buy Bradford & Bingley?
12. Record 1m homes for sale as prices slide
13. 50 ways to save money...
14. Midas share tips: HBOS rights issue
15. Which banks hold your savings?
16. Property market is 'toughest for 30 years'
17. Japanese cars most reliable
18. How to get the best travel cash and cards
19. Is there going to be a house price crash?
20. Pay off the mortgage or add to a pension?
21. House prices fall £15,000 since August
22. Best paid jobs revealed
23. House price slump 'to last four years'
24. Cheapest foreign currency rates
25. Homes crunch: Revenge of the gazunderer

Web Week: A review of the top stories of the week

'Why is everyone so bloody miserable?', asked Transport Minister Tom Harris (pictured) this week. He claimed Britons should appreciate their relative wealth, saying our spending would have 'made our parents gasp'.

Readers were unimpressed by the financial lecturing a day after Chancellor Alistatir Darling pleaded with workers to accept low pay settlements depsite being squeezed by rising prices. Mr Darling wants us to grin and bear it. Mr Harris wants us to grin and compare it.

His comments were insensitive to cash-strapped and over-taxed families, but they reflect the mood. Polls on This is Money forecast a bleak year: oil will hit $200 a barrel this year while interest rates climb from 5% to 5.5% or 6%; inflation will nearly double to 6% by next summer and property prices will fall further than during the early Nineties crash.

Mr Harris calls it pessimism but readers of financial newspaper pages and websites call it caution. TiM readers, for example, typically started a pension aged 20 to 25, have more than £50,000 in savings accounts and clear their credit card balances each month. Caution has helped them focus on their finances. A little more of it would have helped us all avoid the crunch.

Other top stories this week included news that inflation rose from 3% to 3.3% in June, that some Brits are coping with the credit crunch and how a care-free Michael Winner is coping with £6m debts. That helped lift the gloom.

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money.co.uk

(This post also appears as a column in Financial Mail on Sunday)

1. No rate cut for a year as inflation hits 3.3%
2. How to survive the credit crunch, by Michael Winner
3. Brits shaking off credit crunch worries
4. Minister tells boom generation to cheer up
4. House price slump to last four years
5. Fixed mortgage rates hit ten-year high
6. Kings grim warning on pay and bills
7. 'My husband moved our money in secret'
8. Halifax offers stunning '12%' on savings
9. Cautious savers inherit the wealth
10. Card limits frozen - even for the wealthy
11. NS&I: The sure-fire way to beat inflation
12. Hundreds added to the cost of a holiday
13. Sunday newspaper share tips
14. Pay rises have fallen behind inflation
15. 10 accounts to keep your money safe
16. Housebuilders hit by gazundering
17. Ten essential tips for buying homes abroad
18. Airline surcharges: are they just a rip-off?
19. How's this for a £75 council flat
20. Newspaper and magazine share tips
21. Gieve sacrificed by Whitehall spinners to bury bad news
22. Savers in limbo over Isa transfer delays
23. Inflation and petrol fears as oil price soars
24. Spreading risk in fund-of-funds pays off
25. Driving holidays: Spain is Europe's bargain

Web week: Pensions vs mortgages

If you have the luxury of a little extra money, should you pay off your mortgage or invest in a pension? This is Money pensions correspondent Philip Scott posed the question. The view of readers was virtually united. Of 20 comments only one reader dare to admit he had confidence in regular pension saving.

So why the cynicism? Reasons vary but most centre around trust, or lack of it – in Government tax rules, in independent financial advisers, in the stock market (or the managers who invest in it on our behalf).

But the common theme is that people want control of their finances, and they get that by paying down their mortgage rather than entrusting money to professionals who may have let them down before. Instead, many are squirreling money away in high-rate bonds and assiduously watching for the next best-buy account to exploit.

And it’s understandable amid the current economic uncertainty. As 'Ashwin from London' says: 'If I were to lose my job and have cashflow problems, the bank is more likely to grant me a payment holiday on my mortgage. The pension won't pay my mortgage.'

Also this week, readers were worried by a dramatic about-turn in interest rate forecasts. Economists had been expecting further cuts this year but heightened inflation fears spurred the markets to predict a rise from  5% to 5.5%, or even 5.75%. Paying down mortgage debt and investing in top-rate accounts is about to become even more attractive.

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

Top 20 most popular stories, published in the past week

1. Halifax offers stunning 12% on savings
2. Property market is toughest for 30 years
3. Homes crunch: Revenge of the gazunderer
4. Pay off the mortgage or add to a pension
5. City bets on imminent interest rate rise
6. Production costs to tip UK into stagflation
7. Thousands face negative equity crisis
8. Higher fuel cost drives cars off the roads
9. Banks get safer as investing risks tumble
10. B&B: What does it mean for you?
11. CBI boss: oil crisis to spell economic chaos
12. Sunday newspaper share tips
13. How secure is your savings safety net?
14. Will my tenants bad debts affect me?
15. Market report: Wednesday latest
16. HBOS rights issue could fall £800m short
17. 10 accounts to keep your money safe
18. Newspaper and magazine share tips
19. 15 months of gloom ahead, says RBS chief
20. Merger windfall for Catholic BS members

The Gods That Failed: How Blind Faith in Markets Has Cost Us Our Future

One year ago this month, I penned a few words for thisismoney under the highly misleading heading How to get your book published.

Anyone expecting a handy guide to the ins and outs of publishing houses, literary agents, copyright law and the sort of book-jacket designer likely to give your offering that extra oomph on the shelf at Waterstone's would have been disappointed.

My 'advice' ran to four one-syllable words: get a move on.

But I did at least know what I was talking about, in terms of foot-dragging. Back in May 1998, I wrote, I, along with Larry Elliott - then, as now, economics editor of The Guardian, had written a critique of the market economy entitled The Age of Insecurity.
It had sold reasonably well, and we had great fun promoting it. There was even, improbably, a Chinese edition.

A couple of years rolled by and we decided to favour what we assumed would be a hungry public and a grateful publishing industry with a new book. Nothing much happened for a while, other than 'planning' lunches and drinks, but keeping your fans short of 'product' had worked pretty well for operators as diverse as Philip Larkin and Led Zeppelin in terms of stoking up demand. There was just one problem. It did not work for us.

Happily, in 2006, we hit on the idea of a book about the economic legacy of Tony Blair, who had sportingly announced his departure in advance. We called it Fantasy Island and it was published by Constable in May 2007.

I signed off the above mentioned misleadingly-entitled piece of last year as follows:
'Will there be a book three?
'Certainly.
'Will we get our skates on this time?
'Absolutely.
'Well, put it this way, we are having lunch in a few days' time.'

Actually, it was a dinner, in Washington, at our favourite restaurant in that city. We had two ideas for a follow up to Fantasy Island. The first was a sort of Fantasy World book, covering the huge bubble of credit that had been puffed up by central bankers. Given these were pretty well pre-credit crunch days, the idea seemed less obvious then that it does now.

The second was a book provisionally entitled The New Olympians, all about how the elites of the City and Wall Street, in cahoots with central bankers and policymakers, had been given free rein to run the world economy and, we argued, bring it to the brink of disaster.

A publisher was interested in signing us up for a new book and had quite liked both ideas. To which Larry replied that if we put both ideas together, the publisher may really like it.
Usually, this sort of 'two aspirin good, four aspirin better' thinking can get you into trouble. The sum is less than its parts.

But this time round, it worked a treat. Our new book, The Gods that Failed, was published by Bodley Head on June 5, and argues that the New Olympians are responsible for the global money bubble that is now deflating with the consequences everyone can see.

So...will there be a book four? Not for a while. This winter we are taking off - as are our wives and children, who would quite rightly not put with another six months of going for long walks at the weekends 'to let daddy get on with his work'.

But the point is this. Last year's piece may have had a misleading title, but we did take our own advice. We did get on with it. No slacking for us.

That said, the best bit about Larry's brainwave was that we were still at the aperitif stage. That meant we could enjoy our dinner without having to worry about our book.

- Dan Atkinson, Economics Editor, Mail on Sunday

TiM special offer: Buy The Gods that Failed at a 35% discount for £8.44 (RRP: £12.99)

Web Week: B&B fears lead top stories

For a brief moment, savers and investors in one of Britain's largest mortgage banks were griped by panic. For me, the degree of fear was captured by a call last Sunday from an uncle asking whether he should withdraw his savings.

Bradford & Bingley, which is heavily exposed to the beleaguered buy-to-let market, stunned the market at the start of the week with a pile of worrying news, including a profits warning and a restructuring of its money-raising rights issue. The shares fell by nearly a quarter on the day to an all-time low of 67p.

However, the bank and its regulators moved swiftly to assure customers this was not a Northern Rock crisis. And even if it was, savers' money is guaranteed by a compensation scheme - slightly improved in the wake of the Rock - up to £35,000 per person with each bank.

The assurances failed to calm the nerves of many readers. Nearly 500 voted in an online poll, 41% said they would move their money elsewhere. B&B says withdrawals are not significantly up, although it will attempt to attract money with an attractive 7% savings bond this week.

If these savers act on their threat, the bank's under-fire chairman Rod Kent faces not only sleepless nights about a mortgage book 57% exposed to buy-to-let, he may also face the faint prospect of a liquidity crunch. 

I assured my uncle he was fully covered in the event of bank failure. But he, along with thousands others, may still vote with their feet.

Most popular stories published in the past week

1. B&B shares plunge as profits woe revealed
2. Advice for Bradford & Bingley customers
3. Is it time to buy Bradford & Bingley?
4. Major banks in new shares crisis
5. Save us from our 20-year debt torment
6. Experts call for 0.75% bank rate cut
7. House prices fall £15,000 since August
8. Borrowers struggle as fixed rates are hiked
9. Inflation fears make rate hold a certainty
10. What is happening to Spanish property?
11. Newspaper and magazine share tips
12. Cost of airline tickets to soar, bosses warn
13. Beat the property slump with a bungalow
14. Cost of builders rises by 20%
15. How to make yourself a millionaire
16. Average pension less than minimum wage
17. Sunday newspaper share tips
18. Nationwide hikes rates as buyers halve
19. Bank must make tough call on rates
20. Should you take up B&B offer?

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, thisismoney.co.uk

Most popular reports of the month

More than 1m readers came to This is Money in May, up 31% on a year ago, and with 82% of them from the UK. And it appears the content was more appealing than a year ago, with the average time spent on each page up from 77 to 84 seconds. We're always looking to improve what we do, so if you have any suggestions please email me at editor@thisismoney.co.uk

Most popular reports on This is Money in May (including guides and round-ups)

1. Ten steps to reclaim unfair bank charges
2. Budget 2008: Look up your new car tax
3. Easy steps to getting the best Isa
4. Interest rates: News and predictions
5. Q&A: The 10p tax rate fiasco
6. House price crash is here, says City banks
7. Big tax rises on way after 10p debacle
8. Is there going to be a house price crash?
9. Pensioner fined after playing Capital One
10. 50 ways to save money
11. What is happening to Spanish property?
12. Four ways to ease petrol price pain
13. Property fears grow as house prices dive 2.5% - Nationwide
14. Is it time to buy bank shares?
15. Buy-to-let giant Inside Track goes bust
16. Lenders slash house price forecast
17. How to make yourself a millionaire
18. Is buy-to-let on the brink of collapse?
19. Best paid jobs revealed
20. Property turmoil sees rents hit £1,000
21. Horrific inflation puts rates policy in vice
22. Thousand estate agents closed this year
23. Five steps to the perfect pension: FMoS annuities campaign
24. House prices falling faster than 90s crash
25. How to get the best travel cash and cards

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money 

Web week: Most popular reports | Car tax rises

Hauliers this week organised the first major fuel protests since the blockades of 2000 when unleaded prices approached 85p a litre. Why the wait, given pump prices have topped £1 for nearly a year and now average 115p?

The website Petrolprices.com suggests support for protests quickly evaporated once motorists related blockades - now made illegal - to petrol queues.

There's no doubt motorists are upset at rising petrol costs but, judging by a surge of online reader comments this week, many recognise global oil prices as the recent villain. Yes, the Government skims more VAT (17.5%) from rising prices, but total tax makes up 58% of each litre bought compared to 76% at the last protest.

Instead, readers' venom has been targeted at plans for new car tax bands. These will apply a hefty road duty rise from next year to anything larger than a small family saloon. Support for taxes that fairly reflect a citizen's impact or footprint has grown. This tax fails that test, making no dispensation for low mileage drivers and penalising car-buying decisions made years before. 'Scrap road tax altogether and add the cost to fuel so the more you use the more you pay,' wrote reader AJB of Bucks. 'It's an obvious solution yet the obvious seems to pass by this Government.'

It might be an option, with cleverly devised concessions, for a bold government on the ascent. This one isn’t. Families should start preparing now for higher car tax.

(Images courtesy of Petrolprices.com)

Most popular reports on This is Money in the past week (new stories)...

1. Property fears grow as house prices dive
2. What is happening to Spanish property?
3. How to make yourself a millionaire
4. Banks swamped by a savings stampede
5. Midas: Bank rights issues - invest or not?
6. Government faces road tax rebellion
7. Is the seaside house price boom over?
8. Huge security alert over BT broadband
9. Sunday newspaper share tips
10. Why is diesel more expensive than petrol?
11. 2m sold worthless income insurance
12. A slow death for free bank accounts
13. The house price boom heads east
14. Newspaper and magazine share tips
15. House prices fall for eighth month in a row
16. Lenders slash house price forecast
17. Market report: Wednesday
18. Why three years is the best mortgage fix
19. Two-hour bank payments from next week
20. Confusion over U-turn on fuel taxes

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

>> How to invest in oil prices
>> Latest oil price charts
>> Four ways to ease the petrol prices pain
>> Petrol bills calculator

Web Week: Top stories

Most popular stories on This is Money in the past week...

Why tax cuts are making headlines, including This is Money's poll

1. 'Big tax rises' on way after 10p debacle
2. Middle class plunge into debt
3. House sales 'could drop by up to 40%'
4. Lenders slash house price forecast
5. Fears for B&B rights issue as shares dive
6. Market report: Tuesday (FTSE falls more than 180 points)
7. Mortgage rate cuts raise borrowers' hopes
8. Property falls trigger 'gazundering' with case study Holly (pictured right)
9. Red alerts point to looming recession
10. Look ahead, not back when investing
11.Sticky issue of the RBS rights
12. £10bn lost in tax credit mistakes
13. Simon Watkins: Shares slide at RBS as worries grow
14. 'Petrol crisis' sparks fears of rising bills
15. Midas: Lonrho | ASOS

Changes at This is Money

As you may have noticed, we've given the lefthand navigation a bit of a spring clean today. We wanted to make the site easier to use - and to make it easier to find the various levels of content and tools.

You may find areas of the site with the old navigation, but the new style should have washed through to all parts by Thursday.

We're also made some changes to our market data and Power Portfolio tool. Portfolio users will see a new strip of links across the top. These will allow you to view each portfolio not just as a list or performance table, but as a heatmap and performance chart. You'll also be able to see a breakdown of asset allocation of your portfolio and more. Here are five things we've changed...

ONE: virtual portfolio building made easy
Add shares, funds and other securities to your portfolio directly from search results
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/company-search

TWO: more easy ways to build your portfolio
Add shares and funds to your portfolio from company and funds summary pages
eg.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bp.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/funds

THREE: monitor and maintain your investments as charts
Set up comparison charts for your 'favourite' shares, funds and indices - and save your settings
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/charts

FOUR: compare and contrast your investments as heatmaps
Set up heatmaps for your 'favourite' shares and funds - and save your settings
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/heatmaps

FIVE: new portfolio tools
Compare your investments and assess your wealth with a range of new portfolio tools
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/portfolio

You can find out more and full details of the changes here...

We haven't removed anything but you may find it takes a few minutes to become accustomed. Once you are logged in to the site / portfolio you will also see Add to portfolio buttons next to companies and funds on their summary pages and on the search results page.

There are new personalisation features to help you get the best out of our charting and heatmap tools and new funds performance tables to allow you to view sensible comparisons of these key investments.

We'd love to hear your feedback on the changes so far, especially given there's more to come. We want your ideas to help steer This is Money's future.

Please leave comments here (no URL required) or email me at editor@thisismoney.co.uk

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

>> What This is Money's 1.2 million users like to read

>> Give us your feedback via the message boards

Top stories of the past week - 16 May

A round-up of the top stories of the past week on This is Money - this post also appears as a column in the Mail on Sunday. Tell us your views in the reader comments below (no URL required)...

The credit card industry has designed a labyrinth of hidden charges to protect its profits and a ruthless and efficient marketing system to ensure they keep growing. Barclaycard, no stranger to controversy, demonstrated that this week by raising credit limits and urging customers to withdraw money - at extortionate rates of interest - from cash machines. And this at a time when consumers are urged to tighten their belts.

The industry is good at what it does and hates being beaten at its own game. Tom Lyes, a 75-year-old retired van driver from Bournemouth, supplemented his pension by £300 a year exploiting a loophole on Capital One credit card cheques. The industry's usual mechanisms moved into gear, the loophole was closed and Mr Lyes was hit with charges of £315, halved following intervention from This is Money.

This game of cat-and-mouse between card provider and user has become more sophisticated. And as both banks and consumers are squeezed further, reflected in the other top stories this week, the games will intensify. Make sure you keep one step ahead.

See the latest credit card news and advice - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/credit

My slip up - Abbey's £130 penalty for one credit card mistake

1. Q&A: The 10p tax rate fiasco
2. Pensioner fined after playing Capital One
3. House price crash is here, say City banks
4. Bank chief: Economy is facing recession
5. 'Horrific' inflation puts rates policy in vice
6. Is it time to buy bank shares?
7. House sales lowest since the 1970s
8. B&B under fire over quest for £300m
9. House prices: Minister expects 10% fall
10. Stop this greedy pensions grab
11. Rate cut in doubt as producer prices soar
12. More than 6m 'Freds' fear retiring
13. Midas: FTSE dogs suffer as market struggles
14. 'I will rescue economy' - Gordon Brown
15. Should you take up B&B rights issue?
16. British Gas bills may rise by 30%
17. Darling unveils £120-a-year tax giveaway
18. Inflation: A return to the Dark Ages
19. Food inflation soars to 19%
20. Darlington: the secret building society

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

Top stories of the past week

This post appeared as a column in this week's Mail on Sunday. Also, don't miss: This is Money's 1.2m readership and the top stories of the month

The most clicked-on stories of the past week perfectly capture the problem facing millions of Britons.

Soaring oil and global food prices, largely a result of China's growing appetite for commodities,  has pushed up UK petrol costs, heating bills and prices in supermarkets. Add in repeated inflation-busting council tax hikes over the past six years and you have the perfect financial storm that now faces us all.

First-time buyers are feeling the pinch most: priced out of an expensive market and in need of larger deposits to secure a mortgage, following a post-credit crunch tightening of lending criteria.

To add to the misery it now emerges (story no.5) that with potential buyers spooked by the faltering property market, demand for rented property is on the rise. For the first time, the average home costs more than £1,000 per month to let. Typical repayments on the average £100,000 mortgage, on the other hand, are still  barely more than £700.

And the final blow? Rising commodity prices means greater inflation pressure, and that's what prevented the Bank of England cutting rates this week (story no.3). The storm couldn't be more perfect.

1. Thousand estate agents closed this year
2. Four ways to ease petrol price pain
3. Price fears hold Bank back from a rate cut
4. Spending power is at a 17-year low
5. Property turmoil sees rents hit £1,000
6. Advice for Inside Track victims
7. Midas share tips: HBOS rights issue
8. Warren Buffett tips South Korea
9. Microsoft mobile could pip iPhone
10. Tie up your money for better income

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

Most-read stories this week on This is Money

10 most-read stories of the week
(Number of reader comments as of 13.00pm on 02/05)

1. Buy-to-let giant Inside Track goes bust (53)
2. Bank bail-outs to be kept secret (44)
3. House prices now lower than a year ago (53)
4. Is buy-to-let on the brink of collapse? (42)
5. Midas: should you buy in RBS cash call? (5)
6. Mortgages 'to rise by £230 a month' (25)
7. Opec: Petrol to hit £1.50 a litre this year (41)
8. Earn instant interest on new e-bond (3)
9. Abbey's 'bargain' holiday credit card offer (2)
10. Thousands face a £245 road tax rise (13)

Two issues dominated the attention of our readers this week. News on Wednesday that property investment firm Inside Track had gone under drew enormous numbers.

This cheerleader of the buy-to-let boom had made its money running seminars that promised massive returns to punters prepared to buy up strings of urban new-build flats, often well before completion.

Reality often failed to fulfil the promise, and This is Money and Financial Mail have a proud record over the years of warning would-be investors against swallowing the hard-sell of firms like Inside Track - and of airing the stories of individuals who have been scuppered by rental returns and flat valuations well below billing.

Some of our readers' 53 comments, however, expressed little sympathy with those who fell foul of Inside Track's lure. Some also questioned the ethics of buy-to-let landlordism, and others asked if the market had collapsed - our buy-to-let market analysis article was another hit.

Close on the rails was last week's Financial Mail front-page revelation that the Bank of England will not be disclosing which banks dip into its £50bn credit crunch finance. This ran all week and amassed 44 comments, largely disparaging of a perceived arrogance in the Old Lady's handling of taxpayers' money.

This reflects a year-long burgeoning of interest not only in the credit crunch, particularly as it starts to affect households directly, but also in the condition of our big banks' finances, and whether bail-outs are justified.

- Adrian Lowery, Assistant editor

Top stories on This is Money: April 2008

This is Money has just had its best month ever: more than 1.2 million people visited the site in April, a corking 50% up on the same month last year. They looked at nearly 9.5 million pages, which is 37% more than in April 2007.

News and analysis of anxious economic and financial times is attracting most interest, along with advice on savings. The burgeoning number of comments being posted on articles also reflects people's key concerns.

Foremost among which evidently is the property market. Not only were the two most-read articles of the month (see below) on house prices but also these, together with Nationwide's latest figures, have received nearly 200 comments from readers.

Interest in the condition of buy-to-let (taking spots 3 and 4) was redoubled by the news this week that cheerleaders Inside Track have gone bust - a story that comes in at 7th despite being only two days old. You can read our record of warning punters against the rash promises of such firms here.

As doom and gloom appear to descend, more people are seeking advice. Isa-fever set in before and after the tax-year deadline, with four of our Isa advice pieces in the top 20.

Most-read stories in April:
1.  House prices falling faster than 90s crash
2.  UK homes overvalued by 30% says IMF
3.  Is buy-to-let on the brink of collapse?
4.  Buy-to-let novices face mortgage ruin
5.  Bank bail-outs to be kept secret
6.  Are you at risk? The UK sub-prime map
7.  Buy-to-let giant Inside Track goes bust
8.  House prices fell by £5,000 in March
9.  Barclays leads with 6.5% cash Isa
10. How safe is your bank?
11. The top 10 cash Isas of the year
12. Could Kaupthing Edge be the next Rock?
13. Savings bonanza erupts in fixed-rates
14. Revealed: the real rate of inflation
15. HSBC offers to pick up mortgage casualties
16. Former BBC presenter's £40,000 debt
17. Interest rates cut by quarter-point to 5%
18. Will you choose a cash Isa or a crash Isa?
19. How to buy a bargain home in a slowdown
20. Most consistent cash Isas revealed

Not counted above, our best savings rates tables, which are independently researched and updated daily, have gained a web-wide reputation, used by 100,000 visitors this month:
>> Best savings rates tables

- Adrian Lowery, Assistant editor

Web Week: Top stories from This is Money

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/unfairbankcharges

A first-stage victory in the High Court for victims of excessive bank charges has enflamed debate on This is Money.

On one side are customers angry at being charged up to £38 a time for going overdrawn when the real cost to banks is estimated at £4. A legal stand-off allowed thousands to reclaim 'excessive charges' in county courts but future claims are on hold.

On the other side are customers in the black who believe it is right to penalise those unable to manage their finances: the fees were clear in the smallprint and, hey, it has enabled banks to subsidise basic services elsewhere and avoid monthly fees for all. 

But that ignores the injustice of many individual cases. Ben Manicom, a thrifty 20-year-old from Liskeard, Cornwall, has just been charged £57 in a week for going £2.38 overdrawn – a result of Lloyds TSB’s new charging structure. The fees are lower, starting at £6, but are imposed every day an account is in the red: lower charges but now applied repeatedly. (Read the full story on Ben)

If such changes are deemed unfair, it could spell the end of the free banking system. Like a hole in the dyke, if one exit is closed another will be forced open by a banking industry determined to maintain profits.

A more transparent system is fairer and inevitable, but hundreds of readers in our debate certainly disagree: 30 hours since the decision and our bank charges story is up to 72 comments.

Most read stories from the past week
(Number of reader comments as of 6.30pm on 25/04)

1. House price slump fears deepen (17)
2. Banks lose first stage in charges battle (73)
3. Petrol rises 5p a litre in 48 hours (70)
4. House sales crisis halves property market (40)
5. Darling: Banks must help hard-hit families (15)
6. The best (and worst) savings deals
7. House prices: Why look at asking prices (4)
8. Mortgages slump as banks run out of cash (8)
9. Savings bonanza erupts in fixed-rates (11)
10. Norwich Union with-profits: Deadlocked (7)

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

Top stories of the week

Property market news regularly draws the most interest. And so it was this week, but with the top report attracting an unprecedented surge of readers. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) warned house prices are now falling faster than during the darkest days of the early Nineties crash.

With a dizzying array of house price surveys and indices, why does the RICS report cause such concern? Firstly, the study is based on recent feedback from estate agents as opposed to asking prices or agreed sales, so economists regard it as a reliable early indicator. Secondly, it was first to show up the early Nineties slump.

However, it seems estate agents are helping talk themselves out of a job: a warning that a third of Britain's estate agents could be forced to close this year made second most popular report of the week. Interest, you would imagine, was driven by self-interest and schadenfreude rather than heartfelt concern.

Most popular new reports in the past seven days...
(Have your say on each report or post your comments below on this blog - email only required for verification and URL not required) 

1. House prices 'falling faster than 90s crash'
2. Fear of closure for 4,000 estate agents
3. Has your savings rate fallen?
4. Boost your pension pot by up to 63%
5. Soaring euro puts £200 on summer holidays
6. £50bn package to stave off recession
7. Lenders raise rates despite cut by the Bank
8. Borrowers face rate blow as inflation rises
9. Newspaper and magazine share tips
10. Banks battered on B&B cash-call fears

- Andrew Oxlade, Editor, This is Money

>> Top stories and record traffic: March 2008