Archive for the ‘Interest Rate Updates’ Category

Negative gearing the choice of the nation

Monday, May 14th, 2012

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) recently released taxation statistics for the 2009/10 financial year.  The data had a lot of good information, some of which was touched on in last week’s blog however, this week we will be specifically looking at rental income and deductions associated with property investment. Over the ...

The big end of town… Australia’s wealthiest (and poorest) postcodes

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

The Australian Taxation Office has recently released their annual set of Taxation Statistics  (you can see the whole report here) for the 2009/10 financial year.  This is always a fascinating read (shame about the time it takes to be published though), particularly the tables which provide an insight about average ...

Welcome back below average mortgage rates

Friday, April 27th, 2012

With the low CPI reading earlier this week, a drop in the cash rate next Tuesday is pretty much a done deal.   The question is now will the RBA cut the cash rate by 25 or 50 basis points?  According to financial market expectations (based on the ASX cash rate futures ...

Vacant land market weakest in more than a decade

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) in association with RP Data released the December 2011 quarter Residential Land Report this week and it made for pretty sobering reading.  As the report states, over the past five quarters land sales have bounced around the bottom rather than showing any sign of improvement.  ...

The Reserve Bank is in a real bind

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

Following a raft of economic data which has come out recently I felt it was important to reflect on this data.  It is obvious that the Reserve Bank (RBA) is currently in a very tough predicament. While much of the data is proving to be quite negative and providing a ...

Population centralization…the Australian way!

Saturday, April 7th, 2012

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released regional population statistics for the year to June 2011.  These figures provide much more detailed statistics on population growth than the quarterly figures provided by the ABS and they allow a more in-depth analysis of population growth trends. Over the year to June ...

Mortgage stress…What mortgage stress?

Friday, March 30th, 2012

For most people, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s bi-annual Financial Stability Review is a tough read. For anyone interested in the housing market however, the section on household balance sheets (pages 41 to 46) is essential reading. Of particular interest is the analysis on mortgage arrears across Australia and the comparisons ...

Where can you buy a home under $300,000?

Monday, March 26th, 2012

RP Data’s Property Pulse report released this week provides a comprehensive segmentation of median house prices by suburb across the capital cities.  The research results showed that just 7.1% of capital city suburbs have a median house price less than $300,000.  The lowest proportion was Canberra where there wasn’t a single suburb ...

First home buyer activity eases but still in line with the long-term average

Sunday, March 18th, 2012

The January housing finance data was released this week and it showed, as predicted, a slowdown in activity by first home buyers in January 2012.  There are a couple of points to note about these results: The fall in volumes was anticipated given the removal of first home buyer stamp duty ...

Will Australia’s rate of economic growth improve in 2012?

Saturday, March 10th, 2012

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the National Accounts for the December 2011 quarter this week.  The results continued a downwards quarter-on-quarter trend in weaker economic growth across Australia.  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the total market value of goods and services produced in Australia within a ...