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Australian Economy

Federal budget a win for aspiring first home buyers

The 2011 Federal Budget released on Tuesday night should come as a welcome relief for aspiring first home buyers faced with chronic affordability issues. As expected, the Government has this time bucked previous trends and decided not to meddle with the property market. Hopefully, this time, the government will leave

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Australian Economy

Retail sales fall in March

The ABS has today released data showing Australian Retail Sales have fallen a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent in the month of March. The fall has come as a surprise to many economists who had expected sales to actually increase 0.5 percent. In early April, we reported on the Net Savings

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ABS House Price Indices

Down, Down, Prices are Down . .

Figures released today from the ABS show house prices in Australia has fallen a larger than expected 1.68 percent in the March quarter, recording the biggest fall since the global financial crisis. Economists had only expected a 0.5 percent fall. Both Melbourne and Brisbane lead the change in fortune recording

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Australian Economy

Home loans fall to levels not seen in 10 years

The avalanche of bad residential property news just keeps coming. Today, the ABS reported home loan approvals in February has fallen a seasonally adjusted 5.6 percent to 45,393 approvals. This is the lowest number in the past 10 years, when in February 2001, 44,663 approvals were recorded. February’s figure is

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Australian Economy

First Home Buyers Strike – Is there a choice?

Just over two weeks ago a campaign was started urging first home buyers to boycott buying a house in what is considered the most expensive property market in the world. In the last 48 hours, the campaign has achieved phenomenal momentum in both mainstream media and online. The campaign was

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Australian Economy

Mortgage arrears unexpectedly surge

According to mortgage rating agency Fitch, the number of mortgage payments that were 90 days in arrears grew unexpectedly by 12.5 percent in the last quarter of 2010. The data shows more people are defaulting on their mortgages and it is only expected to get worse. Tammy May, founder of

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Australian Economy

Sydney Agents cooking Auction Clearance Rates

The Sunday Telegraph is today reporting “EMBARRASSED agents are covering up a growing failure to sell homes at auction by not telling reporting bodies about their failed campaigns” with as much as 50 percent of Sydney auction results going unreported as the housing market starts to turn south. Louis Christopher,

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Australian Economy

First Home Buyers “got totally suckered”

A new survey has found First Home Buyers are selling up in droves, no longer able to afford their houses purchased with the lurer of free money from the First Home Buyers Boost. The survey, conducted by Mortgage Choice shows 10 percent of first home buyers who have purchased within