Last week you might recall that I was sympathising with Sydney-siders who have the worst mortgage stress in Australia. Apparently a lot can happen in a week because the new figures are now showing that Sydney people are no longer the worst off – this dubious honour now goes to mortgage holders living in Brisbane, with those paying off home loans in Melbourne being very close behind. Of course, many Sydney mortgage holders are still struggling but they’re no longer top of the table!.... Keep Reading »

If you’ve got a home loan and you live in Sydney, then unfortunately you win as belonging to the group of Australians suffering most from mortgage stress at the moment. Mortgage holders in Brisbane and Melbourne, on the other hand, are apparently in the best situation, all according to a recent Moody’s survey..... Keep Reading »

If you’d been reading The Australian newspaper’s website last week instead of ours, you might have thought for a short time that the Reserve Bank had raised the cash rate after all. According to the clever nit-picker that is Media Watch, The Australian obviously had a “interest rates have risen” story ready to go the second the Reserve Bank announced a change – as many had expected them too – but then they kept rates on hold! In some kind of technological confusion, The Australian still managed to publish an article saying that we would be paying more for our home loans. Thank goodness they were wrong!.... Keep Reading »

Another sigh of relief for my back pocket as the Reserve Bank made a decision on Tuesday to leave the cash rate unchanged! Shortly before their Tuesday meeting the odds seemed to be on a rate rise, and the major banks sound like they were all very keen for there to be an increase – they are complaining about the higher deposit rates and lower mortgage rates that they are currently dealing with (and not liking). However, none of the major banks wanted to be “the bad guy” who put up interest rates despite the Reserve Bank leaving the rate unchanged, so that means that for now at least, we don’t need to pay out any extra for our home loan repayments..... Keep Reading »

Will interest rates rise in the near future or won’t they … that’s the million dollar question and one we have mulled over a lot – even as recently as last week we were contemplating what the futures market had to say about the probability of the Reserve Bank raising the cash rate and banks following suit with hikes in home loan interest rates. Now let’s throw another variable into the mix: the value of the Australian dollar..... Keep Reading »