by Calculated Risk on 2/02/2008 05:51:00 PM

From the Daily Mail: The return of negative equity:

Thousands Credit ratings agency Experian have drawn up a map showing which areas of the country are most at risk from a fall in prices.

It found that in some parts of Britain, the average mortgage debt is more than 90 per cent of local property prices.

This leaves owners vulnerable to negative equity ...

The financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority, has warned tmore than a million families are in danger of losing their homes in the next 18 months.

Negative equity limits mobility, prevents homeowners from selling, refinancing, or borrowing from their homes in case of an emergency. So it shouldn't be a surprise that negative equity is also highly correlated with foreclosures.

Also in the UK, the WSJ reports: Citigroup Cuts Off Some U.K. Credit Cards

In a sign of more consumers losing access to loans, Citigroup Inc. has told some 161,000 credit-card customers in the U.K. that they can use their cards until the first week of March and then they'll no longer be able to tap the New York bank for credit.