Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Perth House Prices, Building Approvals and Mortgage Approvals Up

The Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed that in their house price index, Perth rose 2.9% in the final quarter of 2012. This is almost the same findings as the REIWA which recorded Perth prices going up by 3%. The average growth across the nation was 1.6% with Darwin not too far behind Perth with a 2.6% growth and Sydney not far behind with 2.3%.  Hobart was the only capital city that went backwards with a loss of 1.4% over the last three months of 2012. Over 2012, ABS estimates that Perth grew by 5.6%.

Building approvals up 
Yesterday, The West Australian reported that WA building approvals were reported to have increased by 1.3% in December which was the fifth consecutive increase for the mining state. Currently, building approvals are at the highest level since three years ago.

Mortgage approvals up
Mortgage approvals are also up 41% compared to the same time last year according to AFG. Even the value of each of those mortgages is up a massive 37% showing that people are much more confident in the future than a year ago.

Interest Rates Remain Unchanged for February

The Reserve Bank has decided to keep the interest rates steady in today's meeting, leaving the cash rate at 3.00%. The RBA acknowledged that the global economic situation remains gloomy but there is not enough downside risk to warrant a drop in interest rates. Commodity prices have steadies and borrowing conditions are good for businesses. Share prices have been hitting highs for the past two weeks.

The inflation rate stayed around 2.25% but with a slowing job market, the RBA believes this will stay under control. Also, recent news about the housing markets improving in January would have contributed to the RBA's decision not to drop the cash rate unnecessarily.

The Aussie dollar hardly reacted to the news, staying at around $US1.04.

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