The Productivity Commission has just released a draft report on climate change adaptation for public comment. The report examines economic reform options in two broad categories: adaptations to uncertain future climate trends with benefits only under certain climate change scenarios…
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has a breathless article about a flipper couple who bought, renovated and have for sale a Marrickville terrace. The underlying message: there’s profit in the renovation game. My back-of-envelope calculations based on the article’s figures show…
The solid new trend of falling house prices is confirmed by the ABS today with real prices now in retreat for seven quarters and the downward path accelerating.
Buying a home is a major life-event. Most people need a mortgage to bridge the gap between their savings and house prices. But the Victorian government imposes Stamp Duty at this critical point, increasing the capital needed and lengthening mortgage repayments by an average seven years. Many citizens are either excluded or deterred from home ownership by this extra cost, which traps them in the rental market. We are all diminished.
There is a better way. Remove this burden and fund the change by ending the principal residence exemption from State Land Tax an efficient and just way to fund government.
Australia has experienced nine quarters of falling land sales volumes with the last five quarters flatlining forty per cent below long term averages. The big falls in prices we have been predicting are now a certainty.
If BoQ writes big losses and needs capital due to land price falls so far, what shape will the bank be in when the big corrections start?
On Monday the Real Estate Institute of Victoria made public its submission to the Victorian Government on the framing of the state budget. They are big-hearted enough to call for an end to the First Home Bonus – a ‘gift’…
Asset prices falls come straight off our personal equity, our savings, while liabilities – mainly the home mortgage – are payable in full with interest from after-tax incomes. Returning to – overshooting – the long-term land price average is going to be quite an experience for anyone with big borrowings.
28 March 2012 Young homebuyers who took Prosper Australia’s advice – Don’t Buy Now! – exactly a year ago have typically saved themselves $58,000. “I congratulate everyone who stood aside from this dreadful Ponzi scheme known as the Australian property…
The land market is totally ‘gamed’ by spruikers spouting charming but misleading anecdotes and snippets of information, merely to foster ‘confidence’ and keep the mammoth Ponzi scheme going – even in a falling market.