September 17th 2008 06:07
Watch out property market - buyers are getting some sense. No more borrowing beyond capacity means many people won't be able to afford to buy homes at all. Good news for real estate investors, but bad news for people looking for a speculative profit. Does it mean prices will fall? Possible. But that depends on supply of housing to meet demand. States with high immigration will be OK - Queensland will survivie. This from AAP:
SYDNEY, Sept 17 AAP - Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens says the era of households living beyond their means might be coming to an end.
Mr Stevens said household credit growth was much slower at present than it had been for some years and was running "roughly in line with income growth".
Speaking at the Australian Institute of Company Directors lunch in Sydney today, he said the turmoil on financial markets had caused households to take a more conservative approach to their levels of debt.
Mr Stevens said there was a chance gearing would resume once the situation on financial markets improved, "but there is also a good chance that households will for some time seek to contain and consolidate their debt, grow their consumption spending at a pace closer to income, and perhaps look to save more of their current income than in the recent past".
"It is possible that we are witnessing the early part of a new phase where the household spending and borrowing dynamic is different from the past decade and a half," Mr Stevens said.
Mr Stevens said household gross debt in Australia was equal to about 50 per cent of average annual household disposable income in the early 1990s.
The figure reached 160 per cent this year, Mr Stevens said.
September 13th 2008 12:30
Why is my real estate age so surprised that people want to inspect my house? True, is has only been on the internet for one day, but shouldn't that be all it takes to reach people who are actively looking? Have they ever heard of instant alerts? Yet another hole in the way people look for stuff. First impressions are no longer the agent, or driving past the house and seeing a sign - it's the net. I rekon preparation is the key - good pics and a clear, logical message.
The agent just chucked any photo on the webpage, so I asked them to replace certain ones to create more of an online picture tour. I made them take down the text, and replace it with an accurate description of the property minus the sales speak. Well, most of the sales speak. Why do they think that hard sell will work in this day and age of literate cynacism? If I see an advertisement saying this is the best house in the whole world because it ``ticks all the boxes'', am I going to believe it? No, I am going to ignore the way the words are said, drill down to the facts (four bedrooms, two bathrooms, walk to beach...), look at the photos, load up a Google Map and Streetview, go to a house value calculator, check recent sales online, and then, if I am prepared to get serious about the property I will ring the agent for an inspection. I have basically already made my decision before I step foot in the house. I am less likely to get serious about a house if I don't know the price upfront, because that blows out the time it takes to make a judgement and keeps all the power with the real estate agent.
So, I digress. My agent was dumstruck that there was so much response to the real estate web listing. I think he was actually a little scared. If I now have that much controll over how my property is presented for sale, what on earth do I need him for?
September 13th 2008 12:05
I have personally paid enough stamp duty to the Queensland State Government to fill every pothole on the Bruce Highway. I've bought, sold and moved, bought, sold and moved.... And I am doing it again. Why, oh why? And what have I learned? And what can I be taught?
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