Home Loans, Mortgage Refinance, Bad Credit Home Loans

APATHY is mostly to blame for customers of the big four banks missing out on $6.1 billion in annual savings that can be achieved by switching their home loans and other borrowings to the cheapest providers.

The Australian reported financial comparison firm Infochoice yesterday released its first quarterly cost-of-banking research report, which showed big-four customers could save $5.3 billion on their home loans, $275 million on credit cards and $482 million on other financial lending, including car loans.

By taking their business elsewhere, they could save $4300, or 20 per cent, cutting their annual banking costs from $21,500 to $17,200.

“The real anomaly is that,...

AUSTRALIA’S biggest home lender has been rankled by ANZ chief Mike Smith’s pledge to keep rate increases on variable mortgages in line with Reserve Bank movements.

The Commonwealth Bank, which accounts for 31 per cent of all home loans in Australia, yesterday refused to rule out boosting rates on variable mortgages above RBA actions, but claimed it had a better record than the other major banks on delivering cheap home loans.

So...

IT’S a lie to say that numbers don’t lie. This is especially true in the real estate debate about whether you are financially better off renting or buying a house.

Crunching the numbers for this argument can produce almost any answer you like, depending on the assumptions made for factors such as interest rates, house prices, rental costs, investment growth and tax deductions.

And, of course, there’s the matter of trying to save up the tens of thousands of dollars it usually takes to build a deposit.

The “rent money is dead money” line is a fair claim in many cases, but things can get murky when the money saved by renting is invested elsewhere typically shares or an investment...

A YEAR ago – just as the global financial crisis started to hit our shores – prestige homes in some of the Australia’s best suburbs were close to unsellable.

But top-end sales are gathering pace again. While there’s a time delay for figures showing what’s happening with private sales, auctions give immediate results and numbers are up substantially on last year, The Australian reported.

In the September quarter last year only 12 Melbourne homes worth...

The Westpac/Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment rose by 1.7 per cent this month from 119.3 in September to 121.4 in October.

The index is 47.9 per cent higher than its value a year ago and a fraction short of its June 2007 high of 121.5.

“This rise (in consumer sentiment) is significant since the survey follows the Reserve Bank’s decision to raise interest rates,” Westpac’s Chief...

Ray White joint chairman Brian White said the