A recap of Australian Mortgage and Home loan news.

Recapping the top stories of the week up to 1/07/07:

U.S. Regulators Tell Lenders to Toughen Standards
Bloomberg.com
Jesse Westbrook and Craig Torres of Bloomberg report that U.S. banking regulators told mortgage lenders to toughen standards for subprime home loans in a belated effort to end abuses that led to a surge in defaults and the highest foreclosure rate in five years.

Australia Steps Up Sub-Prime Mortgage Securitisation
FN Arena News
Greg Peel takes a look at the sub-prime or lo doc, no doc loans in Australia and compares to the US with an investors angle.

Warning on home loan comparison rates
NineMSN
Consumers should be wary of comparison rates on home loan products because the way in which the rate is calculated has lost touch with the average borrower, an analyst says. Calls are also being made for more changes to make the comparison rate more accurate and for more public education on how to use the comparison rate.

Gen X ‘would struggle with rate rise’
Brisbane Times
Generation Xers living in the outer suburbs of major Australian cities will struggle to manage their mortgage repayments if interest rates rise this year, the head of the federal government’s financial education board says. Article includes commentary from Paul Clitheroe who now heads up the Financial Literacy Foundation

RBA Research Discussion Papers
RBA.gov.au
The Reserve Bank of Australia has released two new research discussion papers:
‘Labour Force Participation and Household Debt’, by Rochelle Belkar, Lynne Cockerell and Rebecca Edwards
‘The Butterfly Effect of Small Open Economies’, by Jarkko Jääskelä and Mariano Kulish

Boom times, bad times
Sydney Morning Herald
Matt Wade writes a lengthy article about the contrasting financial fortunes of the current economic climate with supporting commentary from credit agencies and real life cases.

Don’t waste tax cut
The Sunday Mail
Noel Whittaker reminds us not to waste the tax cuts and has some examples of how, even though a small amount, they can be put to great use.