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

The top stories for the week ending 2/12/07:

Festive cheer on rates but joy can’t last
News.com.au
Karlis Salna reports on most economists tipping for rates to stay on hold at the December meeting of the RBA but be prepared for a possible rate rise in February. This story is also a reminder to not splurge this Christmas.

Rate rise worries fuel fixed rates
SMH
Worries about another interest rate rise have prompted more first home buyers to take out fixed-rate loans, new data shows. Fixed-rate loans were a more popular choice than standard variable loans even before the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised interest rates in November for the 10th time since 2002.

SW Sydney hit hardest by mortgage stress
SMH
Home buyers in south-western Sydney are struggling the most with the burden of high mortgage payments, new figures show. The study on mortgage delinquency by international ratings agency Fitch Ratings was dominated by New South Wales, the state that had the top seven “worst-performing” suburbs.

Reverse mortgages defended
SMH
Reverse mortgages have been under scrutiny lately with calls for the product to be banned. Helen Westerman provides some of negative and positive comments expressed by industry members and analysts.

Publications from the RBA
Plenty of reading material from the RBA this week:
Financial Aggregates – October 2007
Global Imbalances and the Global Saving Glut
Payments System Review Conference
Open Market Operations and Domestic Securities
The Structure and Resilience of the Financial System

US and Globally

U.S. mortgage industry hashes out rate-freeze plan
Reuters
Negotiations are well underway in US between all involved parties to set up a federal policy to protect US mortgage holders facing severe financial stress, and more overall stress for the US economy if they lead to foreclosure, via interest rate increase with loan contracts due to reset. Measures being touted are freezing interest rates on those contracts.

Why America’s Currency Is the World’s Problem
Spiegel Online
A detailed report from Spiegel Online, a leading European news magazine: The ailing US economy seems to be driving the exchange rate of the dollar inexorably downward, with serious consequences for the global economy. Politicians and central bankers are looking on helplessly as the economic outlook worsens by the day and European companies rack up huge losses.