We have suggested several times on our research blog that, as a nation, Australia needs to see more geographic diversity in the labour market. A wider geographic distribution of full time employment opportunities would imply a lessening in demand pressures in capital city housing markets and an improvement in regional demand levels where housing affordability [...]
Archive | February, 2012
New mortgage commitments setting the scene for improved buying activity
The number of housing finance commitments continued to improve in December, rising 8.7% over the quarter according to the seasonally adjusted series from the ABS released this week. The adjusted figures for December were the highest since March 2010; a strong sign that a degree of health is returning to the housing market; at least [...]
100 suburbs with the highest gross value of home sales
The real estate industry is doing it tough. Transaction volumes last year were about 13% lower than 2010, 26% lower than 2009 and 33% lower than the recent highs of 2007. A slightly larger decrease applies to real estate agent commissions, due to the fact that agents are generally paid based on percentage of the [...]
The gap between variable and fixed interest rates has just passed a historic peak. Is it time to fix?
An interesting fact in the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Housing Finance data was the continued trend towards fixed rate loans. The data showed that over the month of November 11.1% of borrowers opted for a fixed rate mortgage; that’s the highest percentage of fixed rate commitments since June 2008. It’s interesting in the sense [...]
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