September 1st, 2010
Australian mortgage holders in some parts of the country might have become a little nervous this week, with new statistics out showing that the value of Australian houses and units has dropped in some cities – in particular, in Brisbane (by 3.3 per cent) and Perth (by 2.5 per cent) for houses, and in Canberra (by 2.7 per cent) and Perth (by 2.5 per cent) for units, over the three months to the end of July, according to the RP Data-Rismark International quarterly index. In other cities, home owners and investors won’t be so concerned, as there have been slight rises; and in all cases, the overall trend for the past year is still an increase..... Keep Reading »
August 17th, 2010
In Australia the news this week is peppered with mortgage related news that is mostly related to the upcoming federal election:.... Keep Reading »
August 4th, 2010
So, the Reserve Bank board members have got together again and decided that at least for now, the official cash rate won’t rise and that looks like meaning that our home loan interest rates will stay the same for at least another month, too. .... Keep Reading »
July 27th, 2010
When I was reading the paper on the weekend I can’t say it made my day to see this headline: Warning: Your mortgage is going up. This story was carried by all the major papers across Australia and the headline was enough to make me more than a little concerned, despite having heard that an interest rate rise wasn’t likely until after the election at the earliest..... Keep Reading »
July 21st, 2010
If you read about mortgages in the news, then the most topic home loan related topic is definitely interest rates. Sure, we also want to read about different methods of repayment or whether or not we can pay off the loan early, but when it comes down to it, the most popular mortgage stories are clearly centered on interest rate issues..... Keep Reading »
July 13th, 2010
Here’s some good news for mortgage holders worried about more interest rate rises in the near future: the banks are all saying that they won’t raise interest rates until after the federal election. Of course, we don’t yet know how soon the federal election could be – late next month is a common tip at the moment – but it could even be later than that, and the later it is, the more reprieve we home loan customers have on increased repayments..... Keep Reading »
July 6th, 2010
The experts are trying to make the mortgage situation in Australia sound all optimistic – they think interest rates won’t rise too much and they suggest that plenty of Australians are still able to cope well with an existing mortgage or to enter the home loan market for the first time. But just because Australia may not have been as badly affected by the global financial crisis as many other countries, that doesn’t mean that mortgages are easy for everyone, as news this week makes absolutely clear..... Keep Reading »
June 29th, 2010
This week the mortgage news in Australia varies from banks trying not to raise interest rates, to new laws coming in to stop some of the excessive fees we can pay, and on to a mortgage belonging to the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott! In more detail:.... Keep Reading »
June 22nd, 2010
There are lots of interesting tidbits in Australian mortgage news this week, so without further ado:.... Keep Reading »
June 15th, 2010
Surveys are showing that as individuals, mortgage holders like me are more pessimistic than the experts about how many interest rate rises we are going to have to pay out for in the next year or so. I guess those of us who are the ones who’ll have to dig deeper in our pockets are more likely to be concerned about this, and it translates into statistics stating that consumers believe there will be at least three rises in interest rates in the next twelve months..... Keep Reading »
June 8th, 2010
There are two big items in the mortgage news this week: for those of us already in the mortgage market, I’m looking at whether or not we can afford to pay higher interest rates, and if you’re someone who’s waiting to buy their first property and are trying to get a mortgage, there’s news about more home loan applications getting knocked back..... Keep Reading »
June 2nd, 2010
Phew. We’ve survived another start of the month Reserve Bank meeting without having to reach into our pockets and hand over more hard earned cash to the bank in the form of higher interest payments. The Reserve Bank met on Tuesday and decided, as many experts had tipped they would, to keep the cash rate at the same level for this month, and possibly another two or three months. And that’s good news for anyone with a mortgage or those of you looking to jump into a home loan in the near future..... Keep Reading »
May 25th, 2010
Want to have a mortage that lasts forever? Believe it or not, that’s the enticement being used by a particular bank at the moment: sign up for your “everlasting mortgage”. That doesn’t sound very enticing to me, but when you look into the product then it could be something that suits you – if you’re aware of the catches..... Keep Reading »
May 18th, 2010
When you first take out a home loan, whether it’s for your own home or as an investment, you start off with the expectation that you’ll be able to make repayments relatively easily – whether that’s from your salary or from rental income. Nobody deliberately (I hope!) takes on a mortgage that they’re going to have trouble repaying. But then interest rates rise – like they’ve done pretty regularly here in the last year – and it’s a little scary how quickly you can get out of your depth and start to have problems making your repayments..... Keep Reading »
May 12th, 2010
It’s been a big news week for finances, with the economic crisis in Greece making the world markets nervous, and within Australia, with a federal budget being announced. But will all this have much impact on our mortgages? In the first case, the answer seems to be “hopefully not”, and in the latter, the answer is more like “unfortunately not”..... Keep Reading »
