The recap of this weeks mortgage, home loan and housing news in Australia.

The top stories for the week ending 21/10/07:

Mortgage stress ‘alarmist’
News.com.au
Author Stephen Johnson takes a look at comments from Phil Naylor of the MFAA (Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia) saying that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) definition of mortgage stress - being where a borrower paid 30 per cent their income on a home loan - made borrowers anxious.

Action On Housing Affordability Now Urgent
HIA
The Commonwealth Bank and Housing Industry Association publish a quarterly index of housing affordability which examines what proportion of an average income would need to be devoted to buying a home loan. The latest report from the Commonwealth Bank and Housing Industry Association shows that housing affordability fell by more than 2 per cent in the September quarter under the weight of the August increase in interest rates and surging established house prices.

All of this talk about a debt crisis, it couldn’t be wrong could it?
Peter Martin
Author Peter Martin has a brief take on the current doom and gloom reports on personal finances asking, as many are, does it add up..

Property industry rejects ALP plan
News.com.au
Turi Condon and Jennifer Hewett take a look at comments from the Australian Property Monitors general manager Michael McNamara and Chris Lamonte from the Housing Industry Association being extremely sceptical about Labor’s plan to ease housing affordability by releasing surplus commonwealth land.

No politician can afford to fix housing affordability
Sydney Morning Herald
Rory Robertson, a strategist at Macquarie Bank, provides an interesting opinion the state of housing affordabilty. It’s quite refreshing to see an article from a respected source without political spin or agenda push for profit. From the article “Well-located family homes are expensive because demand for them is typically high and growing while their supply is inherently limited……”.

Five ways to beat mortgage fees
The Daily Telegraph
5 brief tips from property analysts for beating mortgage fees taken from Octobers issue of Australian Property Investor magazine.

Rates rising everywhere bar big bank mortgages
Financial Standard
Article takes a look at the effects of the global liquidity crunch, stemming from the US sub-prime crash, and how that’s affecting mortgage managers and second tier lenders.

$7500 sneaky fine print charges
News.com.au
Home owners face penalty fees of up to $7500 to swap to a cheaper mortgage as figures show nearly 90 per cent of loans now have nasty early exit charges in the fine print. Based on a Cannex survey for the Daily Telegraph.