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..... Keep 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..... Keep Reading »

I may not always be a big fan of politicians – from any party – but any politician who tells my bank not to raise my mortgage interest rate has got to be okay in my books. That’s what the federal treasurer Wayne Swan has been saying this week after a big government announcment on the ending of bank funding guarantees..... Keep Reading »

Despite many predictions to the contrary, the Reserve Bank of Australia met today and decided not to raise the official cash rate again. Good news, and quite unexpected, for all of us mortgage holders out there who had been expecting to see another rise in interest rates..... Keep Reading »