The latest "Quarterly Mortgage and Landlord Possession Statistics" from the Government have just been released, covering the first quarter of 2008. And things don't look too good.

A total of 38,688 mortgage possession claims were issued during Q1, which is an increase of 16% over the same period last year. The number of mortgage possession orders was 27,530, up 17% on the same time last year.

The trouble is, that these numbers are extremely high for a house price crash that is only in the early stages. It looks very likely that the ongoing repossessions will outdo even the peaks of the early nineties.

The full details are on the Ministry of Justice site:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/mortgatelandlordpossession.htm

It's all gone a bit pear shaped, hasn't it. I think that the "establishment" might be getting a little worried about the potential number of repos...