SO the war between the banks and building societies intensifies and, in the wake of the Chancellor's cut in interest rates last month, mortgages plunge to their lowest level for 31 years - down to the 6.74 per cent now charged by lenders Nationwide and the Yorkshire.

But does it make you feel good?

Are you as happy as borrowers were in the swinging Sixties when this was last the rate?

Government spin-doctors hoping for an outbreak of mortgaged voter glee will be disappointed.

For too many home buyers are stuck with homes that are worth far less than they were only a few years ago.

So they may be better off in mortgage-repayment terms - considerably, too, given that the rate was a thumping 15.4 per cent just six years ago - but they still feel like they have lost tens of thousands of pounds.

And for young, first-time buyers this latest mortgage cut hardly has an impact because they were not in the property market when rates hit their 1990 peak.

So all this decrease amounts to, from their viewpoint, is a minuscule quarter-point drop.

We must wait, then, for the low rates to trickle more buyers into the housing market and send prices up - so that, slowly, bricks and mortar begin to feel like a good investment once more.

But the early Nineties' crash in property prices remains a painful memory that makes "feel good" hard for mortgage-holders to achieve, even when they are better off.

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