The latest housing finance figures reveal a dramatic drop in investor housing loans. But first-time buyers remain a scarce commodityAlong with the news final week that Australian households are now the most indebted in the world came the release of the latest housing finance figures. They showed that in the past six months a remarkable turnaround in the Australian housing market has occurred. After a boom fuelled mostly on the back of investors,owner-occupiers are now the leaders. This change has precipitated somewhat of a cooling of the housing market but for owner-occupiers, the cost of taking out a home loan continues to rise at a startling pace. Through the latter part of 2013 and 2014, and the housing market took off,fired by interest rate cuts that had seen mortgage rates plunge by around two percentage points to historical lows. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com