Australia’s largest mortgage insurer, Genworth, says it will raise prices on Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) by 20% this quarter on increased risk due to rising unemployment. “There is economic uncertainty and unemployment is expected to rise and with that one expects to see some increases in people not being able …
On Sunday, Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan indicated the federal government had no intention of pulling the first home owners grant after suggestion it was fueling a new bubble. “To pull that stimulus out now would be to pull the rug from underneath recovery,” said Wayne Swan. Today, the Reserve Bank …
The warning tone has been sounding since 2002. Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep. In an interview titled “Mixed feeling on the real estate bubble” featured on Inside Business in October 2002, reporter Zoe Daniel said “Residential property, the most lucrative asset market in Australia worth a trillion dollars – and rising and ringing warning …
While on informal leave at Kirribilli House last week, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd crafted his essay titled “The Building Decade: The Long, Hard Road to Sustainable Economic Recovery” due to be published in the Herald today. While it impressively demonstrates a solid understanding of the causes, it does raise some …
Last night, any hope of a recovery was dashed in the U.S. with the latest release of unemployment data. June saw 467,000 jobs axed and the unemployment rate hitting 9.5%. The New York Times wrote it was “a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to …
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index show house prices in the U.S. are continuing to fall. Prices for the 12 months to April ’09 fell 18.1%, only slightly slower than the 18.7% year on year fall to March ’09. From the dizzy peak three years ago, U.S. house prices …
AUSTRALIAN households have lost an extraordinary 36 per cent of their financial wealth since the economic crisis began. Estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics put combined household wealth at just short of $787 billion at the end of March, down from a peak of $1246 billion in September 2007. …
The ABC has been airing a six part series titled “The Ascent of Money”. This series is presented by Professor Niall Ferguson and follows the evolution of Money. Last night’s episode was called “Safe as Houses” and is worth a watch.
AUSTRALIA’S sharemarket will halve in value, house prices will slump as much as 40 per cent and unemployment will climb to 10 per cent. That’s the bold prediction from economic forecaster Harry Dent, who says a bigger crash is ahead for the global economy within the next two years. » …
Earlier this year, there was a lot of speculation and warning that the First Home Owner’s Boost would turn the First Home Buyers segment of the market into a subprime bubble. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is now coming out which will confirm these fears. On Wednesday, the …
THE average loan size for first-home buyers has risen by $52,000 – or 23 per cent – in the past two years, raising fears that government incentives for young buyers are artificially inflating the market. A report commissioned by Brandmanagement, a market research firm specialising in the finance sector, says …
INCREASING concerns about job security are impacting on the property market, with people opting to spend less and delay buying, a survey shows. The realestate.com.au Consumer Insights Buy report, which measures the perceptions of property buyers, showed 55 per cent of Australians have a high degree of concern about their …
Those buying their first home have another six months to locate their dream dwelling and still benefit from last year’s boost to the first home owners grant scheme. The first home owners grant was lifted from $7000 to $14,000 for existing dwellings and from $14,000 to $21,000 for new homes …
Despite the best efforts of the government to prop up the bubbling housing market, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released today show Australian house prices fell 6.7% for the year. This result is the biggest annual fall since the index started 23 years ago. It does appear the First Home …
With lack of employment and pay cuts from a 4 day working week, young adults are moving out off their rentals and back into the family nest with Mum & Dad or into share accommodation. This has prompted warnings that the national rental vacancy rates are set to double within …
FIRST home buyers are leaping aboard a sinking ship, with house prices set to fall about 20 per cent in the next two years, an Australian National University economist says. Professor Quentin Grafton said house prices could not continue to grow at a faster rate than incomes and consumer prices. …
One of the problems which has helped fuel this real estate bubble has been the wild and ridiculous claims made by sprukers. The real estate industry is unique in that you can make up anything, disseminate it to the public and never expect any repercussions. If a financial advisor made …
A GROWING number of NSW residents are on the cusp of losing their homes to banks and other lenders despite the steep fall in interest rates. The number of repossession orders in the state dropped at the end of last year, as lower interest rates offered relief to borrowers struggling …
You could be mistaken for thinking we didn’t each have a part to play in the Global Financial Crisis. It wasn’t that long ago Kevin Rudd was saying “As Prime Minister I will not sit idly by and watch Australian households suffer the worst effects of a global crisis we …
The Sydney Morning Herald reports : THE Australian housing market is facing the prospect of a “perfect storm” of financial pressures – including high mortgage debt, overvalued homes and rising unemployment – in which prices could eventually fall by as much as 30 per cent, investors have been warned. » …
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