Comments on: 300,000 Australian Households at Risk of Losing Their Homes

By: Diggin it!

Diggin it! — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:59:34 +0000

Zaphod all is not lost if you own a property as this market will not go down without a fight [look at what USA is doing] it takes three years in an average market to break even on All costs, this market will have another peek in about 12-18 months, thats when you need to cut and run, from there it will all start a gradual decline to where it needs to go. Its like the share market it will find a bottom then we will see how long it has to stay there. Good luck

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:24:52 +0000

Sigh.....Yes it does look as though house prices in Australia will drop.I thought that a good scenario was that the prices would just flatline until all things caught up. If you have recently bought into the market, I think that you have aquired a negative asset, because the massive amount of mortgage interest payments can't be offset with rising house prices in the future.Now that there is a high possibility of them dropping? Is that called a double negative asset?

By: John

John — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:27:37 +0000

Because, christina, evolution takes thousands of generations, thus we are on average no smarter than civilizations ten thousand years before us (Egyptians, Aztecs, etc...) that had slavery, mass murder, wars, etc... Hey we have all those things today, big surprise!

The point is, people are pretty stupid on average, just as they were back then.

By: Puzzled

Puzzled — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:34:29 +0000

What no-one seems to be talking about with respect to house price increases is the impact of inflation (real, not CPI). M3 is running at about 10%:

2004 $m 2005 $m 2006 $m
Money base 37,194 38,678 41,278
4% 7%
M3 623,049 678,292 747,229
9% 10%
Broad money 686,293 764,400 841,134
11% 10%

source: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.NSF/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/53153F2003B13A23CA25723600046678?opendocument

This alone should see house prices increasing should it not?

Before I get flamed, I'm not saying current prices are realistic or supportable. Just that, all other things being equal, property values should no more remain static against a devaluing currancy than any other product.

By: christina

christina — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:39:45 +0000

Winston Churchill once said

"The further back into history you look, the further into the future you can see" All this has happened heaps of times before in history, but people forget and make the same stupid mistakes each generation. Why oh why!

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:53:57 +0000

I find it ironic in the extreme that the governments superannuation guarantee levee on wages will fail utterly in that the little bit left after the failure of stock market investment will buy virtually nothing after inflation. Or maybe I missed the point, it was guaranteed, that is, guaranteed to fail.
Its one thing to have taxation, at least one can imagine its going to a good cause - but superannuation?
I can already see the federal minister responsible for superannuation ducking for cover.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:47:10 +0000

Note: My above comment was in response to Jackon's comment

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:46:13 +0000

What has the RBA done wrong? Are you suggesting it should be under government control? Or under the control of the public themselves? Can you imagine everyone voting on an interest rate rise? I wonder who would vote for higher rates to curb inflationary pressure...no-one.

Personally I think the RBA is doing exactly the right thing. At least we don't have the corrupt Fed the USA has.

I know this wasn't your point, but I have to laugh at the Commonwealth bank "by the people, for the people" line. For the people? Haha, I think the Commonwealth Bank forgot about their people a long time ago...

By: jackson

jackson — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:02:08 +0000

We need to get rid of the privately owned reserve bank, and set up something like what the commonwealth bank was set up for originally.

a bank by the people for the people.

By: Coffee Addict

Coffee Addict — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:01:27 +0000

Excuse the gramatical errors above. Fast typing syndrome.

Back to the market, the RBA is aware of the issues raised by Dan.
My guestimate is that there will not be any more (significant) interest rate rises (this year) as a result.

Higher inflation, relaxed work visa requirements and improved infrastructure investment will be deemed preferable to the further application of fiscal brakes.