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With the NSW recently announcing that from the first of January next year, it will abolish stamp duty concessions for first home buyers buying new homes, it’s been reported this week that there is now more activity in the property market from first home buyers keen to see if they can get in before that deadline.
So if you’re a first home buyer and you feel like you’re ready, here is a suggested list you may want to check off before you decide to pounce: (more…)
Forget mortgage stress – it’s household stress we are suffering from!
This was highlighted recently in the latest Genworth Homebuyer Confidence Index (HCI) which shed some light on how borrowers are managing their financial obligations – particularly in light of various media reports about mortgage stress. (more…)
With global markets still in turmoil from events emanating from the US and news reports suggesting this is the beginning of the end, it’s easy for property investors and borrowers to panic.
But that’s the last thing you should be doing.
If – and I use the term ‘if’ – the current slide in our sharemarket and currency puts our economy in the doldrums for any amount of time, as a property owner, one of the last things you would want to do now is panic and sell.
Why?
A buyer can spot a nervous seller at 100 feet and is likely to result in you getting far less than you would if you bunkered down to ride out the storm.
No one is really prepared to say exactly how this current turn of events will manifest over the short to medium term for Australia but there is now certainly more talk that official interest rates may indeed be cut in September.
So that being said, if your repayments are likely to decrease, it makes sense to hold onto that property the loan is against because it’s now costing you less – and wait for things to calm down.
And that’s because the property market – like interest rates – is cyclical by nature.
An opportunity may even exist for some borrowers to keep their repayments at the same level they are currently at now (if rates do go down) and take the opportunity to pay more off their mortgage while they can.
Rather than being convinced it’s all doom and gloom, there may be some silver lining in that cloud.
The Genworth International Mortgage Trends report released this week found that the average age of first home buyers at the moment is 31 years old. In other words – first home buyers are getting older. (more…)
The mortgage industry won’t be holding its breath on anything to assist borrowers on tonight’s Federal Budget. We’ve already been told it will be ‘tough’ and will involve cuts to spending.
So if there is nothing to write home about in tonight’s budget for the many borrowers who are coping with what is fast becoming a year set to make them rein in their belts even tighter, what we also don’t want to see down the track is any more examples of policy making on the run. (more…)
They say even a week can be a long time in politics but it was good to see newly elected NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell make one of his first announcements in the new job over the weekend, with a move designed to provide more opportunities to those looking to get out of the rental market and into their own home. (more…)
The Federal Government’s draft regulations on exit fees in their current form will not do anything to promote competition in the mortgage market – but rather will do more to benefit the big banks. (more…)
A rising rate climate, changes in lending criteria and a tight rental market will all continue to play their part in contributing to new borrowing patterns in the year ahead and defining what’s hot and what’s not in the mortgage market. (more…)