Home Loans, Mortgage Refinance, Bad Credit Home Loans

Analysts believe that home loan interest rates are likely to go up in a matter of weeks, once the election outcome becomes known.

This is despite the fact that the Reserve Bank is not expected to change the official cash rate until late this year.

According to Housing Industry Association figures published this week, the average monthly loan repayment in Victoria has hit $2238, up from $1499 a year ago,

Banks are continuing to make a huge profits even though we have seen a lot of complaints about the increased costs of funding affecting their bottom line.

Commonwealth Bank chief Ralph Norris, speaking as the bank posted a record $6.1 billion profit last week, said it “may well have to” pass on higher costs to customers.

ANZ chief Mike Smith said...

National Mortgage Company has has made a decision to introduce rete cuts to some of it’s fixed home loan products.

NMC’s one and two year fixed rate mortgages will now be offered at 7.30 and 7.50 per cent respectively.

The move comes after the NMC reduced both its two and three year fixed rates to 7.60 per cent just over a week ago. However since that rate cut some other players in the home loan industry have come out with significant rate reduction for fixed mortgages. Aussie Home Loans for one had cut it’s fixed rates to 6.99%.

Head of sales Fernando Lemos said NMC had observed a slight shift to fixed rates with consumers...

AMP’s has reported in it’s half yearly profit announcement that it has seen a drop in demand for home loans as compared to prior reporting periods.

AMP Bank contributed operating earnings of $21m to the group’s overall bottom line in the six months to June 2010, up from the $18m reported during the corresponding period during the first half of 2009.

The group announced that while the home loan market has been down overall in Australia and this is well recognised by other players in the industry, AMP has done quite well with it’s deposit division.

AMP’s statement added that second tier banks continued to experience ongoing funding constraints.

Overall, AMP Limited reported an underlying profit of $383m...

Bank of Queensland has yesterday finalized the pricing on it’s $1.6 billion of mortgage-backed securities sold through the Series 2010-2 REDS. The amount is twice that sought when the bank began marketing the issue earlier last week and is the second largest in Australian history following Westpac’s $2bn issue last December, attracted 14 investors, including the Australian government and ‘a couple of Singapore-based investors’, according to a bank spokesperson.

The securities are backed by fully verified loans and are fully insured by Genworth and QBE. The loans had a weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 56%, and an average period since the loans have been...

Although some improvements have been introduced, significant barriers remain for borrowers looking to switch home loans.

According to research conducted by RateCity consumers are finding it very difficult to switch home loans and switch transaction accounts between banks.

One of the most significant stumbling blocks with mortgage refinance is the mountain of paperwork required by the new lender. The next big issue is costs. By the time a borrower takes into account what they will need to pay their current lender to part ways – it is often cheaper to stay.

Damian Smith, RateCity CEO, said switching barriers remained a key...

A new high lvr – 95% home loan product will  be available through Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank from next week..

There is significant demand in the mortgage market for a competitive home loan product outside of the big four banks.

The new home loan will be of great assistance to First Home Buyers who will be able to enter the property market with only 5% deposit. The loan will be available direct through Adelaide Bank and through the bank’s panel of mortgage managers. The bank is also planning to launch a low-doc loan later this year.

The Adelaide Bank is amongst...

Aussie Home Loans have put a fixed home loan offer out into the market that is extremely competitive  with a 3 year fixed offer at only 6.99%. This represents a rate reduction of 0.35%.

This rate move should make Aussie’s three year fixed home loans the lowest in the market as well as below the average of the big four banks’ standard variable rates.

Aussie CEO Stephen Porges said homeowners were very concerned about what would happen to interest rates after the election this weekend. Aussie are confident that many borrowers will choose the safe option of refinancing their mortgages into a fixed secure and competitive product.

“Our price cut will reinvigorate much needed competition...

After an extended period of time where lenders have been progressively cutting loan lvrs. there is an improvement. Non-bank lenders would like to reclaim mortgage market share with the re-introduction of high LVR loan products.

Homeloans Ltd yesterday reintroduced lending of up to 95 per cent LVR after 18 months of trading with lower lvrs.

“Homeloans has made the move back into high LVR lending at this point in time because it now has more of an appetite to take on this kind of business,” Homeloans general manager of third party sales Tony Carn told The Adviser.

There is a clear opportunity in this market given that very few lenders are prepared to offer home loans over 90%.

Homeloans’ new 95 per cent LVR policy will apply...

It seems that Variable Home Loan numbers are at a 21 month high in Australia with fixed home loans only making up 2% of the mortgage market.

Despite the talk in the media of lenders considering lifting interest rates outside of the RBA increases, most people seem to prefer variable rate home loans.

Currently there is only a very small gap in the cost of the cheapest available three year fixed mortgage and a 30-year $300,000 principal and interest loan – on average $98.

Variable home loans from mainstream lender generally come with a range of professional packages offering cheaper rates. ‘Pro packs’ tend to offer interest rate discounts along with ‘Gold’ credit cards and other special features.

Mortgage Choice spokesperson...

Borrowers are choosing to stay with variable home loans in preference to fixing. According to recent sales figures by Mortgage Choice, demand for fixed rate home loans dropped to only 2 per cent of all home loan approvals in July.

According to Mortgage Choice spokesperson Kristy Sheppard new borrowers are confident that rates are not about to take off and are therefore choosing to leave their options open.

“This is despite less than half a percentage point difference between our average basic variable rate and the three year fixed rate, which converts to less than $100 per month on a $300,000 home loan,” she said.

With fixed rate home loans at a mere two per cent of all of our...