Palma.The number of mortgages taken out on homes in the Balearics in September this year (1'348) dropped by 6 percent in comparison with the same month last year (1'434), the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said yesterday.
However, in comparison with the previous month of August (1'063), the number of mortgages taken out in September increased by 21 percent.
The 1'348 mortgages taken out in September were constituted of capital to the tune of 114'073'000 euros, whilst those taken out in September 2010 (1'434) were valued at 166'968'000 euros.
Balearic lead
At a national level the number of mortgages taken out in August this year for every 100'000 head of population was at its greatest in the Balearics (213) but the figure for the Islands was 20.4 percent less than it had been in the Islands in the same month in 2010.
The INE said that on a year-on-year basis, the number of mortgages taken out on homes at a national level dropped by 42 percent in September, confirming the month as the seventeenth in a row when there have been year-on-year downturns.
In comparison to August, a month when there is traditionally less home buying, the number of mortgages taken out increased by 5.4 percent, the second lowest level since 2003 which marks the start of the current historic record.
The total value of mortgages was recorded as 3'448.4 million euros, a drop of 45.7 percent compared to September 2010.
The average cost of a mortgage taken out on a home in September was 111'934 euros, 6.3 percent less than a year ago but 4.7 percent higher than the average for August.