Anytime in 2009 might be a Mortgage Shopper's perfect time to buy your first home or your first investment property, as long as you are ready to hold the property for several years before selling.
Recent low interest rates and falling property prices combined with Government initiatives have made entering the property market much easier now, particularly for first home buyers. Yet there is no stampede to buy and this is great when you are a buyer. You will get a better choice and buy a better home for less money. And some pundits say that house prises in Brisbane are set to fall and this market has held prices over a long period of low sales, and long sales cycles.
Both Federal and State Governments are making it easy to buy, and they need to if we are to see a recovery from the recession.
Since September 2008 the Reserve Bank of Australia has cut the cash rate by 3 percentage points to a seven-year-low of 4.25 per cent. That is massive in four months and another big cut is looming in February 2009.
In October, the Federal Government doubled the first home owners grant to $14,000 for used homes, and increased it to $21,000 for buying or building a new home to aid the building industry.
Some are predicting the official cash rate to be as low as 2.5 per cent in June, while many market economists predict at least another one percentage point cut in total by the central bank.
"Mortgage holders in the coming year are likely to benefit from the lowest variable interest rates ever offered in Australia as the cash rate could fall to 2.5 per cent.''
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has forecast a recovery in the property market in the second half of 2009.
Happy hunting Mortgage Shoppers!
