Interest in Rates ticks upward…..
On the day in history that a nation got its independence, Russia elected a new President, and Tennessee Williams was born, how fitting that we learn also that “Funny Girl” opened on Broadway.
Recent events sort of remind me of Barbara a bit, she’s would be under the radar for years, and then she would pop her head up or announces another “last concert”, her fans would go wild, and so it sort of prompted me about the news today that ASB fixed rates are going higher.
I mentioned in an earlier post about the advice I was offered by more than one mortgage industry type person last year that if fixed rates get well into the 6’s then fix for as long as poss. So what happened when they did go way below 7, into the low 6’s recently?
Well more print copy was generated telling everyone that once they reach the fives then look at fixing for as long as you can. Look, its no different than housing, its still all about supply and demand. It wouldn’t surprise me if some reporters still had some pre-written articles sitting in their “draft” folders today, with a pre-written headline “Wow 5% – should I really fix now?”
On the second to last day of Feb 09, BNZ man, Tony Alexander said……
“As long as I figured on keeping my job I would be out there actively looking for a property at the moment,”
…and really that’s what it is about. If you have a great choice of homes on the market in your desired location, you’ve been shopping around for months, and see one that starts to tick 8 of your boxes, then think seriously about waiting for that ultimate one that ticks 10 out of 10 boxes, because you might just find it doesn’t exist, sorry…., it probably doesn’t exist in your desired spending range.
Many buyers discover that, after looking around for a property within their budgeted spending range, all of their problems with finding a property would fade away and they would get everything they want/desire if only they just had “another 20%” more in that budget.
Yes its true (and as Tony Alexander touched on above) we have seen a spate of unfortunate events, even announcements locally in the unemployment category. We have also seen incredible media focus on this category. Still the rates debate seems to take centre stage and generates heaps of copy.
However do your own research …read what the experts advise….from Page 7 of the current National Banks Property Focus is a well written article about what should I/you be doing in so far as my cost of funds and duration of borrowing is concerned?.
Finishing on a local perspective again….and another dynamic that potential buyers of property in our region must be aware of…..is covered in the feature article in the same latest above March 09 NAB release, headed up…. Location, location, location.
The article brief says
“we compare the growth in house prices for holiday hotspots with prices over the remainder of New Zealand. Our findings show that over the past 16 years dwelling prices in the main holiday locations have increased faster than the rest of NZ. It is not surprising to see that the price adjustment for holiday houses is now surpassing on the downside too….. “
Amusingly enough the Nelson region isn’t mentioned as a subset of their dataset, it mentions that Motueka, Takaka, and the Marlborough Sounds data is included in their aggregated totals. I suspect that is because they talk about “holiday homes” and “holiday hotspots” so maybe they too aren’t sure themselves that Nelson is officially classified as a holiday destination.
One thing that can’t be denied though, is that spike you can see on the above chart in 03-04 that shows the holiday location indicator going a bit “nuts” in comparison to the “remainder of NZ” trend line.
I say amusingly because if you look at my chart here that I graphed a while back and posted about, to my eyes the Nelson data is absolutely un-missable, so I’m surprised they didn’t appear to include & name it.
March 26 2009 10:36 pm | Buyers and Mortgages Finance Money and Nelson
.jpg)
