Monday, September 17, 2012

Top 20 First Home Buyer Suburbs


The State government has released figures that might be interesting to those that are looking for their first home in Perth. These areas are the top 20 suburbs... with so many coming in at the same number, it looks more like a top 50 list. 
Top 20 suburbs for first home buyers so far in 2012-13:
1. Baldivis
2. Ellenbrook
3. Thornlie
4. Byford
5. Butler / Morley
6. Canning Vale / Girrawheen / Balga
7. Forrestfield
8. Southern River
9. Harrisdale
10. Banksia Grove
11. Scarborough / Maylands
12. Hamilton Hill / Gosnells / Australind
13. Nollamara
14. Kalgoorlie / Perth / Ballajura / Dianella / Waikiki / Hammond Park
15. Maddington / Bassendean / Wattle Grove
16. Meadow Springs / Secret Harbour / Huntingdale
17. Seville Grove / Clarkson / Willetton / Wellard
18. Dalyellup / Piara Waters / East Perth / Kelmscott / Port Kennedy
19. Como / Boulder / Halls Head / Bertram / Caversham / High Wycombe
20. Queens Park / Innaloo / Carlisle / Rivervale


First Homebuyers are Moving In

August figures for first home-owners grant applications has come in with 1,728 applications, up 41% from last year. There was also an article in the West Australian today that showed median house rents rose by $10 to $450 per week in the last three months, consistent with the previous two quarters of 2012. These two factors combined indicate that first home buyers are getting sick of the rising rents and starting to look for property. If you are a first home buyer, are you convinced?

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Why we didn't fix interest rates

I am not sure what I missed. Today Tonight last night talked about fixing your interest rates and made it seem like the only two options people should be considering is to
  1. Fix their whole home loan 
  2. Fix half of your home loan 
There is a third option which most people will realise, and it is the option that we chose. That option is to keep the whole home loan as variable. Currently, the world's interest rates are at an all time low. Australia by comparison has a very high interest rate. Whilst I do not work for a bank or mortgage broker, a casual read of the daily news gives me a feeling that interest rates are not going to go up too soon. 

Usually people will fix their interest rates because they are afraid that they will not be able to service their interest repayments IF interest rates go up. In a time when interest rates do not seem to be heading up soon, fixing your interest rate may have the opposite effect. Whilst everyone else's interest rate drops, you are stuck on 5.50%. 

Also when you fix your interest rate, you cannot make EXTRA repayments during that period. Let's say you fix your interest rate for three years and you have some extra cash to reduce your loan. You can't use that extra money to reduce your loan! 

Variable rates usually allow you to put some extra money in during good times and redraw that amount when an emergency comes along without too much drama. So, by watching Today Tonight, I was wondering whose press release they took and ran with for that story. 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Interest Rates Steady in September

The Australian Reserve Bank has decided today not to move interest rates. The Bank mentioned various global factors that indicate a softening of the world markets. Commodity prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks and the "terms of trade peaked a year ago and have declined significantly since then".

The Bank also stated that most indicators show that economic growth has been "running close to trend, led by very large increases in capital spending in the resources sector". The carbon tax rated a mention as there were observations that the CPI was starting to go up however inflation remained under control. As a result, they decided not to change the interest rate, leaving the cash rate again at 3.5%.

This should be welcome news for those currently looking for a home and starting to investigate home loans.

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