Homeowners increase Equity....

UK homeowners increased the value of their stakes in their properties by £3.2bn in the first three months of 2010, figures show.
The injection was slightly lower than the £3.4bn increase of the last quarter of 2009, the Bank of England's figures reveal.
The rise was due to homeowners paying off more of their mortgage and lenders' demands for higher deposits.
It is now two years since equity was last withdrawn from homes in the UK.
UK homeowners raised the equity levels in their homes by £38.3bn in the last two years.
In the two years prior to that they borrowed £87bn against the inflated value of their homes, often to spend on big-ticket items or to consolidate debt.
The figures make clear the changing behaviour of homeowners over the last decade as well as the changing housing market.
People were spending money released from the rising value of homes for a decade from the third quarter of 1998 - borrowing a total of £327bn.
At the height of equity withdrawal in 2003, the process of borrowing money against the rising value of homes was adding nearly 9% a year to the post-tax income of the entire UK population.
In the first three months of 2010, some 1.3% of the post-tax income of the population has been taken out of the economy because people decided to reduce their mortgage debt instead.
Low interest rates, as well as people's fears of future debts or job losses, have led homeowners to pay off their mortgage faster than previously. As a result, these repayments have outstripped equity release.
With mortgage rates at low levels, people have decided to "overpay" while on standard variable rate home loans.