First-time buyers deserted the housing market in droves in January after the stamp duty holiday came to an end.

The housing market almost ground a halt at the start of the year when the number of mortgages approved for house purchases nearly halved, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The biggest drop was in first-time buyers - down 54% on December at 11,300.

The number of first-time buyers had hit a two-year high in December, suggesting many rushed to complete before the beginning of January when stamp duty was reintroduced on properties costing between £125,000 and £175,000.

Can there be a greater joy than your fixed rate mortgage coming to an end?

That mortgage you signed up to years ago when rates were 6% and it seemed like a great deal at the time?

There probably are things – the birth of your first child perhaps, conquering Kilimanjaro – but halving your mortgage in one go is pretty peachy.

While it's tempting to simply gloat and then head off to the shops, the end of the fixed rate brings a notable, but pleasing, dilemma – how to spend your new cash?

New figures have revealed that if you ever want to be able to afford to buy your own home, you can ditch any plans to have kids, at least if you live in London. Apparently in the capital nine in ten families with children cannot afford their own home in their 40s.

If you decide against breeding then you have a better chance, because almost a third of couples without kids can afford a house of their own (at least they could in 2008 when the figures were last available).

So just how bad have things become, and what can we do about it?

More mortgage deals have become available over the past month, in particular higher loan-to-value mortgages, as lenders grow more confident about lending money again. Several have also cut their mortgage rates by between 0.1% and 0.5% in recent weeks.

At the beginning of March there were 1,798 mortgage deals on the market that required deposits of between 0% and 40%, according to Moneyfacts. The number was up 6% from a month ago, and 68% higher than a year ago.

There are still very few mortgages available with just 0% or 5% deposits, but there are now 489 deals that ask for 10% or 15% down payments compared to just 258 a year ago - making things easier for first-time buyers.

People are back to borrowing and spending again, Bank of England figures have revealed.

Consumers borrowed another £500 million on their credit cards and through loans in January, following £265 million in December.

This was the largest increase in consumer credit in well over a year and comes after five months of net repayments - when people paid back their credit card and other unsecured debts between July and November.

The surge in borrowing comes as a bit of a surprise. People probably borrowed more in December and January to buy Christmas presents and go on shopping sprees during the January sales – but retail sales were actually badly hit in January by the weather.

Mortgage fraud surged again last year, in particular identity fraud, reversing a steady decline in fraud cases in previous years.

Total frauds increased by nearly 10% in 2009 from 2008, according to CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service.

The housing slump deterred fraudsters during the recession - but now they are back as the market has started to recover.

We're all guilty of it - thinking we'll get organised and give our finances an overhaul - and then putting it of for as long as humanly possible.

It's easy to get bills and leave them unopened and ominous - I do it all the time. I genuinely knuckled down yesterday though, opened all my bills and my bank statements and had a good sort out of my accounts. Nothing was as bad as I thought, and I honestly can't tell you what a relief it is to have done it - it's a weight off my mind.

So, if you're going to brave spring cleaning your finances, here's a bit of help to make it just that bit easier.

It looks like the housing market is running out of steam again, just a few months after things started to pick up. The reason? Would-be-buyers are still struggling to get mortgages.

Housing market expert Kate Barker, who sits on the Bank of England' monetary policy committee, has warned prices could dip again this year because of a lack of mortgage lending.

Even though the government has urged banks and building societies to make more and cheaper mortgages available, the situation hasn't got much better.

Santander offered a glimmer of hope yesterday, slashing the deposits required for first time buyers buying new-build properties. Those buying flats will be able to borrow 80% of the property value, and those buying flats will be able to borrow 90%. It's the first time the firm has offered 90% mortgages for two years.

However, this will suit just a small percentage of house buyers. The rest of us will continue to struggle.

Two thirds of homeowners would like to be free of their mortgage debts by the time they are 50 years old, according to recent research from The Co-operative Bank.

It found that about three in 10 of those aiming to pay their mortgage off by that age would take advantage of their reduced outgoings to work fewer hours or give up their jobs completely and maybe even travel the world.

Conversely, however, many thousands of cash-strapped Britons are currently facing the bleak prospect of continuing to pay their mortgages off well into their retirement years.

So read on for our top tips on how to pay down your mortgage debts as quickly as possible - and get on with the rest of your life.

A law firm is set to investigate the legality of Skipton building society's SVR clause, which allowed the lender to hike its standard mortgage rate by 1.45 percentage points last month.

It was revealed last month that Skipton was temporarily removing the ceiling on its SVR which promised borrowers that the standard variable rate (SVR) would not go over 3% above the Bank of England base rate.

But with effect from March 1st the building society is bringing in a new SVR at 4.95%, which the building society says is in response to "exceptional market conditions."

On a typical £150,000 repayment mortgage, this would see the annual cost increase from £9,010 to £10,480.

So, what's the legal case all about?