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Australian Economy

Australia is different

Highly leveraged property investors are set for their first full night sleep in 8 months after a news article out today from The Age’s Ian Verrender saying a chance of a property crash in Australia is “as rare as hen’s teeth”. Read more on why Australia’s property bubble can’t crash

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Australian Economy

Negative Gearing still on the chopping block agenda

The two day tax forum in Canberra has ended today showing negative gearing is still firmly on the chopping block. In April we reported (Negative Gearing Rort added to Endangered Species List) on discussions the Gillard government had been having on abolishing what is considered Australia’s largest tax concession. Figures

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Australian Economy

Eight months into the Australian housing recession

Eight months into Australia’s housing recession and there is no signs of letting up, not that we would expect any let up unless the government decided to intervene. According to the RP Data-Riskmark Hedonic Index released today, nationally house prices fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent in the month of

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Australian Economy

Gen Y refusing to leverage into asset bubble

The Melbourne Herald Sun has reported on research from RateCity, showing in the 12 months to July, 40,000 fewer first home buyers entered the property market compared to the previous 12 months. This has seen mortgage lending fall some $11 billion dollars, at a time when housing costs were approximately

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Australian Economy

Rent or Buy?

Mortgage insurer Genworth Financial yesterday released its September Homebuyer Confidence Index showing the number of Australian’s with mortgage stress in Australia has jumped to 25 percent and is now at unprecedented heights, even exceeding levels experienced during the Global Financial Crisis. With this in mind, is it better to rent

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Australian Economy

Wayne Swan : Treasurer of the Year

The Howard Era is known as a period between the 11th March 1996 and the 3rd of December 2007 where John Howard held the position of Prime Minister of Australia and Peter Costello, the Treasurer of Australia. It’s also known as the longest period of economic expansion in Australia. But

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Australian Economy

Are economists blinded by our housing bubble?

Philip Soos, a researcher at Deakin University’s School of International & Political Studies and author of the paper Bubbling Over : The End of Australia’s $2 Trillion Housing Party posses the question if economists are ignoring our property bubble? In an article published today and titled Are economists ignoring Australia’s

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Australian Economy

SQM: House prices could be down 15% by June 2012

With data showing national house prices have been falling for the last 7 months, SQM Research has told Fairfax Newspapers today, it expects June 2012 house prices in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to be as much as 15 percent lower than 2010 peaks, provided there are no sudden problems in

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Australian Economy

No surprise as house prices continue to fall

There are no surprises in this months release of the RP Data‐Rismark July Hedonic Home Value Index. House prices continue to decline, falling a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in the month of July and registering the 7th straight month of falls. Since the start of the year, Australian capital city prices

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Australian Economy

Oversupply of Homes see New Home Sales Plunge

According to figures released from the Housing Industry of Australia, sales of new homes are down 8 percent for the month of July. This follows a similar size fall in June of 8.7 percent and has the housing industry begging the government for more stimulus. But while the housing lobby

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Australian Economy

Total Block Disaster

Channel 9’s reality TV show The Block has tonight transparently shown the nation via their arm chairs, the true depressed state of the property market. Only one of the four renovated houses sold at auction yesterday at the Fitzroy Town Hall. The only property sold – Polly & Warwick’s, fetched

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Australian Economy

First home buyers no where to be seen

Chronic housing affordability has seen the number of first home buyers drop by almost 50 percent in Adelaide. Figures supplied to the Adelaide Advertiser by Treasury, show only 6570 South Australian First Home Buyers signed on the dotted line to purchase a home in 2010-11, a dramatic drop from the

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Australian Economy

This is the recession Australia forgot to have

Boy, what a turbulent couple of weeks on global stock markets. In Australia, the All Ordinaries lost 3.75 percent over the week ending 29 July only to accelerate and plunge 7.49 percent the following week. This included a free fall of 4.21 percent last Friday. This week has seen some

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Australian Economy

The Big Squeeze

Channel 9’s 60 Minutes has tonight shown a story about record number of Australia’s struggling to keep up with their mortgage repayments, suggesting renting may just keep you ahead of the game. A transcript of the story will be available tomorrow. » The Big Squeeze – 60 Minutes, 7th August