Australian economy contracts 0.5%

Posted on March 10, 2009 by peter 
Filed under Australia Mortgage and Finance News · Tagged:

Australia’s economy has suffered ‘negative growth’ for the first time in eight years, raising fears that the country may be heading for a recession.

The economy contracted by 0.5% in the last three months of 2008 from the previous quarter, the government said.

Economists had been expecting it to grow by 0.2%.

If Australia’s economy shrinks again the current quarter, it will enter recession, usually defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Australia’s resource-based economy has been hit hard by the decline in commodity prices, but it has fared better than others.

The country’s mining firms are cutting back on spending, slashing staff numbers, and shelving projects.

“Our economy did contract in the December quarter, but by far less than other developed economies,” said Treasurer Wayne Swan.

“This is a sobering but unsurprising outcome, because I think it does illustrate the full impact of the magnitude of the global recession and how it’s impacting on this country.”

Japan’s GDP dropped 3.3% in the final quarter of 2008, the US saw a 1.6% drop and the UK contracted by 1.5%

Big uptake in first homeowner grants in Australia

Posted on March 10, 2009 by peter 
Filed under Australia Mortgage and Finance News · Tagged: ,

FIRST-time home buyers are rushing to take advantage of a one-off a boost in the Federal Government’s housing grant before it ends in three months time, the nation’s largest mortgage broker says.

Australian Finance Group (AFG) says the number of loans arranged by the firm rose by 36.8 per cent in February to 7673 loans, valued at $2.67 billion.

Of those more than a quarter, or 26.1 per cent, were taken out by first home buyers, up from 25.8 per cent in January.

That compared to February 2008, when the number of loans AFG sold totalled 7574, with only 11.5 per cent going to first home buyers.

However, AFG general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt warned that if the Government grant top-up was not extended, the market may be looking over cliff by the June 30 deadline.

“The dramatic increase we’ve seen in first home buyers over the past four months is a double edged sword,” he said.

“It’s positive in that it underpins the future recovery of mid-level property markets by getting significant numbers of people onto the property ladder.

“But we’re concerned that if the government doesn’t announce an extension to the grants fairly soon, we’ll continue to pull demand forward, and will be left staring over a cliff come the end of June.”

In mid-October, the Federal Government doubled the first home owners grant to $14,000 for established dwellings and tripled it to $21,000 for newly built properties.

AFG’s figures also showed NSW had the highest concentration of first home buyers, at 34.5 per cent, in February, followed by Victoria on 26.8 per cent.

Borrowers also continued to shun fixed-rate loans, with the number of new fixed mortgages falling to 2.5 per cent in February, after peaking at 27.3 per cent in November 2007.

Standard variable rates were the mostly popular, making up 48.8 per cent of loans.

Being overcharged on your mortgage?

Posted on February 27, 2009 by peter 
Filed under Australia Mortgage and Finance News · Tagged:

If you want to find out how to stop the banks from taking advantage of you through errors and faulty systems, then keep your eyes glued to this page for the next 3 minutes; you are in for some shocking surprises. The banks have probably already overcharged you many times this year without even knowing it

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