ARE you an optimist or are you a pessimist?

Your designated category will entirely depend on whether you have had your fingers burnt during this last 18 months of economic downturn.

Like most people, I have been affected, however, I still like to think of myself as an optimist.

We are all probably sick of hearing bad news in the media about how we are all going to have to sell up and live in squalor because of the worsening recession.

I certainly am fed up of hearing it, to the point of frustration, as it quite simply is not always the case.

The issue I have is that the reported information is quite often historic, and relates to a period that we are now out of.

I will give you an example.

Lending by banks and building societies to households totalled £1.1bn in the first month of the year.

That amounts to less than half of the average for the last six months, according to new data from the Bank of England.

This was released and reported in March, yet very little explanation was given alongside it.

The reality is this.

By the time this information was being publicised and probably making headlines, the number of actual mortgage applications being made was on the increase.

The number of property sales being completed was far higher than previous months, and optimism was being felt in the industry.

This latter element did not really make the headlines.

There is, of course, also an explanation if you think about it – who among you would normally moves house in January?

The answer being, not many.

It is typical for this to be a very slow month.

Also, for these loans to actually complete in January, they must have been applied for in November-December of last year, this being the exact time when all of the skeletons were coming out from the closets in the financial world.

My point is this, the bad news that makes the headlines can often be historic and there are often very obvious reasons for their levels.

Since the turn of the year, many financial institutions have seen an increase to their levels of business.

There is a market of opportunity out there and the smart people recognise this and are taking advantage.

■ Karl Pemberton is director of Active Financial Services, of Guisborough, east Cleveland. He can be contacted on 01287-632367 or at activefinancialservices.

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