Glenn Stevens
Now I have vacated the job of helping edit news.com.au, let me reveal my dreadful desire to write an almost unthinkable headline: “Rates hike means more gain for savers”.
It’s pretty well inconceivable that any major media outlet would lead with this sentiment for fear of alienating all the hard-pressed homeowners, the millions of working families and Aussie battlers feeling the pinch in the ever-tightening mortgage belt.
This holds true from the most rabid reactionary radio shock jock, through the marching minions of Murdochdom (I am yet to hand back the company-issued electric shock collar), to the fairy floss fops of Fairfax and even unto the ABC commissars of collectivist cant.
Continue reading "Come on RBA, get those rates up you good thing" »
It’s time for a hard conversation about money. Some Australians, it seems, have literally bet their houses on interest rates staying at the current record lows.
There’s a stock-standard way of reporting the outcome of a Reserve Bank meeting in which the board decides to leave the target cash rate unchanged. You’ll have heard it on radio: “Homeowners can breathe a sigh of relief after the RBA left interest rates on hold”.
But with interest rates as low as they are, any homeowner who is really holding their breath waiting for the RBA decision these days is, quite simply, living beyond their means.
Continue reading "If rate rises are hurting now, you need a smaller house" »
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Vicki PS says:
Tom, while it may be true that house prices have risen disproportionately, it’s worth remembering that 28 years ago, when I bought my first home, home loan interest rates were around 13.5%, and continue to rise to peak at 16%. That had a marked effect on affordability! Read more »
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Steve of Cornubia says:
@ not a bogan - I’ve been made redundant five times, recd a payment once. Plenty of people get redundancy payments today; they just have to be a member of a strong union, in a large organisation. As for ‘cheap’ houses, how about $249K, fully renovated, 45mins to Brisbane CBD… Read more »
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