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Economic Gloom Envelops Britain
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About 45,000 families will lose their homes to repossession this year, according to Britain's Council of Mortgage Lenders. The council estimates that about 170,000 more families will fall at least three months behind on their mortgage payments this year. People getting new mortgages often must make much bigger down payments.
Some are finding creative ways to beat the bust.
Last winter, Brian and Wendy Wilshaw put their five-bedroom house on 11.5 acres in the Devon countryside on the market for about $1.9 million. They had run the property, which includes a two-acre lake, as a fishing retreat for more than a decade but wanted to retire.
In the brutal housing market, they didn't get a single offer.
So they have now decided to sell their house in an online prize competition. For $45, people can buy a chance to win the house in a random drawing. So far, people have bought nearly 39,000 chances, closing in on the Wilshaws' goal of 46,000.
"All we want is what the house is worth," Wendy Wilshaw said.
Greenman, the legal secretary, said she's lucky that she and her ex-boyfriend found a solution. But, after working for years to buy her own home, the market is too volatile to think about buying again.
She has moved back in with her mother.
Special correspondent Karla Adam contributed to this report.
