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

The top stories for the week ending 16/03/08:

Monetary Policy and Inflation: How Does it Work?
RBA
Remarks made to the Australian Treasury by Reserve Bank Governor, Glenn Stevens, have been released to public at the RBA website. The transcript goes a long way to slicing through some of the fog that has been generated around the topic of inflation and the RBA’s action in response via monetary policy. View Transcript »

Refinancing in response to financial stress – ASIC report
ASIC - Australian Securities and Investments Commission
ASIC’s Acting Executive Director, Consumer Protection, Ms Delia Rickard said the report highlights the risks for borrowers under mortgage stress refinancing with fringe lenders at great expense but without resolving their underlying financial problems.
View Release »
Download Report [PDF] »
Download a Refinancing Checklist by ASIC [PDF] »

Mortgage Refinancing Increasing as Homes Juggle Debts
Herald Sun
Jason Bryce reports that household debts are driving a boom in mortgage refinancing. Refinanced mortgages now make up about one third of all mortgages sold in Australia. Thousands of families suffering from mortgage stress are potentially putting homes at risk by using the mortgage as a way to consolidate other debts or purchase consumer items. View Story »

Interest rates causing Mortgage Stress
The Age
Leon Gettler provides an overview of the latest release of the Australian Mortgage Industry report produced by JPMorgan/Fujitsu Consulting. View the Story » Download the Report [PDF] »

Banks not breaking even on mortgages
Business Spectator
The tight credit market is impacting harder on lenders and in the article Challenger Financial Services Ltd chief executive, Mike Tilley, goes to say while it was politically expedient for the government to criticise the actions of banks but the local market needed to understand that banks were short of capital and losing money on their mortgage portfolios. View Story »

Rudd the biggest enemy of the nation’s battlers
The Age
Mirko Bagaric reports that low-income earners didn’t break the economy and it’s not up to them to fix it. The biggest enemy of “working families” is not inflation — it is Kevin Rudd. View Story »

PM squirms in heat of battle
Sunday Times
Glen Milne writes that the Labor, the traditional party of the underdog, suddenly finds itself skewered in debates over whether carers and pensioners should be spared the Budget razor. View Story »