Finance: Trend Terms

finance: In September, for the 14th month in a row, the total value of housing finance commitments fell in trend terms, according to The Guardian. That is still some way behind the 20 consecutive falls that occurred after the end of the first home-buyer boost in response to the GFC. But given unemployment has been falling during this time and the overall economy is growing solidly, it is a rather unprecedented length of time for people to be withdrawing from the housing market. But for those hoping for improved affordability, the news is less good as average home loans remain at near record levels. Sydney house prices see biggest fall for 30 years, dragging rest of Australia down Read more There does seem to be somewhat of a slowing of the fall especially by investors but in annual terms the fall continues to grow. Over the past five years, there has only been six months where there was an increase in the number of home loans taken out in Western Australia. It's now down 12.8% compared with September last year the biggest annual fall since August 2010, and the 8% fall for owner-occupier finance commitments is the biggest since January 2011 And given the link between housing finance and house prices, this continuing fall suggests no improvement in housing prices until well into next year While around 70% of the fall from the recent peak of housing finance in July 2017 is due to investors leaving the market, it is clear that owner-occupiers have followed both in terms of number of commitments and the value of the finance that is being sought And while it is easy to suggest this is just a Sydney and Melbourne phenomenon, the reality is the number of people taking out home loan mortgages has been falling or staying flat pretty much in every state and territory over the past year Western Australia has been the state that has suffered the biggest falls, even if the number of home loans taken out has risen for the past two months. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.