Favorable signs for the UK's economy.

For some time now, the United Kingdom's (UK) housing market has been a matter of concern for analysts there. Housing sales are an indicator of household formation, which in turn is an indicator of the direction of durables sales. An April 24, 2006 report in The Daily Telegraph (London) cited the Building Societies Association as the source for the rate of mortgage approvals-loans granted but funds not yet dispersed-growing 29 percent in March 2006 when compared with the same period in 2005.

The Telegraph carried additional detail from the Council of Mortgage lenders saying that the total amount of loans in March 2006 was the highest since record keeping began in 1974.

The Telegraph also pointed to "a number of surveys" from February 2006, which showed that housing prices were "robust" and likely to "remain firm for some time yet."

A separate Telegraph story, also published on April 24, 2006, said that retail sales were better than expected in March 2007. The story sourced the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the fact that retail sales volume grew by 0.7 percent in March 2006 when compared with February 2006, and February 2006 grew 0.3 percent over January 2006, which actually showed a decrease of 1.7 percent from December 2005.

This was the strongest UK retail performance since November 2005.

On May 4, 2006, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on a Which? magazine survey that found UK consumers spending an average of three days every year waiting for various service people such as electricians and computer techs to arrive for their appointments. Supermarkets were found to have the best record.