Having a mortgage is cool. Or it must be, because the trends show that we Australians are much more in love with mortgages than we were two decades ago. Reserve Bank statistics on mortgage debts, which they only began to record in 1990, show that our thirst for mortgages has been increasing at a rapid pace. Who would’ve thought that this thing we complain about so often is actually something we can’t get enough of? Continue Reading »

This time round, sadly, the Reserve Bank hasn’t surprised us: at this morning’s March meeting the powers that be announced that they would be raising the official cash rate by 25 points to 4.0 per cent, effective from tomorrow. After the surprise announcement in February that the cash rate wouldn’t rise – despite pretty much everyone in Australia being certain it would – the Reserve Bank has continued with the expected trend of having several rate rises during this year and now we’re going to have to start paying a bit more on our mortgages. Continue Reading »

If you’re not a member of the Australian mortgage (chain) gang yet, a study released this week might be bad news for you. According to the quarterly Housing Industry Association-Commonwealth Bank first home buyer affordability index study which was just published, affordability for buying a house (and the accompanying mortgage) in Australia has got worse again, and first home buyers might really struggle to break into the market. The statistics are quite shocking: the December quarter shows a fall of 18.4 per cent in affordability of housing for first home buyers, a huge drop especially when seen next to the annual fall of 22.3 per cent. Continue Reading »

Are you one of the increasing number of Australian home loan holders who are having problems making their mortgage repayments? Apparently the number of people getting into trouble with their mortgages is on the rise, according to data released earlier this week. Not only that, the prediction is that it’s only going to get worse. Continue Reading »