readers comments on fhb disaster !

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/rba-warns-many-first-home-owners-who-used-government-grants-may-now-be-vulnerable/comments-fn59niix-1226063292725


Rove of Brisbane Posted at 11:30 AM Today
The first home vendors grant had nothing to do with the people taking out the loans to buy a house. It was for the sellers to make a commission. This is the exact outcome the government wants.

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Greed is Good Posted at 11:32 AM Today
Surprise surprise! This crazy obsession Australians have with housing will only end in tears. The prices people have paid is nothing short of ridiculous and all these spruikers should be held accountable! Plus government for these ridiculous subsidies which only skews the market into bubbles which will now pop all over the country. While there at it the government can also modify negative gearing. That will fix the supposed shortage of housing as well as reduce prices to a more sustainable level.

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Tony of Brisbane Posted at 11:35 AM Today
The great problem we have in this country is that people have no idea the value of anything. If you tried to sell someone a Big Mac for $20 they would know that you were ripping them off, yet tell someone a 3 bedroom weatherboard house in some brumby suburb of anywhere is worth $500k and they believe you.The Reserve bank should never have let the real estate bubble grow to such gargantuan proportions in the first place. Real estate is crashing as we speak. The fall out will be devastating.

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P.Cruickshank Posted at 12:00 PM Today
Suprise suprise these first home buyers werw lured into buying a home by goverment ( who were desperate to avoid the word recession) real estate agents who only ever think of there own pocket and banks whose carefree lending attitudes saw a boom in prices paid for marginal real estate I say keep goverment and investors out of existing residential real estate and any incentives target new development only

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Reg of Perth Posted at 12:03 PM Today
Maybe people want mansions instead of homes to raise their family.The current home buyer generation expect an instant fully furnished all singing all dancing home with landscaped gardens and the works, spa's pools and so on. I started with the basics and laybyed and gradually bought the essentials. Eventually the home is the way you wanted it with patience and less stress all the time increasing the value.

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annie barker of hunter NSW Posted at 12:16 PM Today
And I feel sorry for the young families who realised their dream, only to see it slip away from them. Their house is now probably worth less, and it is going to cause them great hardship. Blind Freddy could see this was going to happen, and the present govt. is going to have to dip into its box of tricks to help these families somehow. After all it was your idea to start with.

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SB of Perth Posted at 12:23 PM Today
If people over commit themselves its your problem not mime, the bank or the governments. If you can not afford something do not buy it. The nanny state lives.

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Bob of Townsville Posted at 12:39 PM Today
Chinese Interest Rates - 6.31%. Australian Interest Rates - 4.75%. For a country that is supposedly riding on the back of a booming China it is unusual how low our interest rates are. We definitely need to increase them to stop inflation breaking out.

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Steven Majewski of North Perth Posted at 12:51 PM Today
The governemt should have never intervened in the housing market, it was already well overvalued at the time and market forces should have been allowed to play out. The government does not come to rescue of the stock market when it falls so why should it with the propety market

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Dano 50 of Adelaide Posted at 1:21 PM Today
True Right Governor!! Succession of political and ecconomic failures have inflated this asset class to the point in which many recent home buyres now have negative equity against thier mortgage. Up the intrest rates I dare you Mr Stevens.

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John of Taralga Posted at 1:25 PM Today
Yet another failed government initiative? The housing market should never have received any help from government of any description, other than cutting back on its own rates, charges and taxes! Which are probably all added on top again so they get more back, and we have again, less affordable housing! It is time to remove such incentives and make everyone more accountable and the banks and lenders more honest!!

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matt of Brisbane Posted at 1:38 PM Today
oh, thats rich coming from the RBA, trying to lay blame on the Government... sure, it is partly their fault, but talk about the pot calling the kettle black! if anything, the RBA's OWN stimulus through drastically dropping rates has been a much greater cause of the problem!

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David of Sydney Posted at 2:03 PM Today
A perfect example of Government waste, and what happens when an incompetent government interferes with the market. People had an extra $21k in their budget, so they paid $21k more. What's the economic benefit of tax payers dollars being used this way? None at all.

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Smeck of Melbourne Posted at 2:03 PM Today
When is the Reserve Bank going to take their hands of the economic levers and stop tinkering with interest rate percentages? And by the way in my travels around Melbourne, I see a lot of 'FOR LEASE' signs on residential real estate. Could be an over supply problem not an under supply problem?

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arun of sydney Posted at 2:04 PM Today
In Australia 70%are owner occupiers compared to the US, UK , Europe it is 50% because most Australians look at their home as a form of superannuation .Super only started in Australia in the mid 90's whereas it the above countries most people invest in managed funds as they have had super for a much longer period.Residential investment has over time proven to be a solid investment as no one will sell their houses unless they are really have to.The situation is different in western countries as the housing market and the share market are in the same cycle as investors have to sell if they get a margin call. In Australian the residential and share market are on opposite cycles due to the high interest rates .Whenever there is a share market crash interest rates goes down which gives a chance for the first home buyer to enter the market.This is why we cannot compare the property market in Australia to other western countries. Also our inflation is not within the control of the Australian people as it is driven by international markets such as oil and resources and the printing of money that is going on and higher interest rate will not in Australia will not stop world inflation.

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Bush bunny of Rural NSW Posted at 2:06 PM Today
No the dream, often driven by a new Bride is about to be turned it to a horror story. Not new but not seen in these numbers before. A country home, even one transported from the city and rebuilt can still be bought for less than a third of its city price. Living within ones budget is wise not some thing to shame us.

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Abin of qld Posted at 2:22 PM Today
Its great to know we have people like Ric Battellino at the helm of the RBA. He can state the obvious like no other. Does it not make sense that FHBs would have larger loans and less stable employment thus making them more vunerable to a rate rise and therefore more likely to fall inarrears?

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Dave of Melbourne Posted at 2:51 PM Today
The biggest problem is that a $7,000 first home owners grant equates to an additional $70,000 that you can borrow from the bank when borrowing with a 10% deposit. That $70,000 is pretty close to the increase in the median house price since the grant has been offered. It was never about making houses more affordable, it was about supporting house prices to keep people spending, and to keep the construction industry moving. Just like the Building the Education Revolution, it was all about spending to keep unemployment low. People feel richer when their house is worth more, so they spend more. Helps the economy grow... until the wheels fall off. I'm really concerned about the next 24months in Australia.

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VK Posted at 3:00 PM Today
The big corporations have gouged prices up, and that's not inflation apparently. If wages go up a tiny bit, the RBA comes out shooting from the hip to arrest 'inflation'. Only wages are under restraint.

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WA Pete of Perth Posted at 3:02 PM Today
Surprise! Surprise! In reality this is another of Labour's failed programmes which came at great cost. First convince people who would otherwise not have bought property that they should dive in with a generous grant. Now that interest rates are rising, the poor souls can no longer afford their mortgage repayments. The blame for this lies with the government who has again wasted our money. If large numbers of 1st home buyer defaults now, then it shows the incentives should not have been offered in the 1st place. Seems like the people in Canberra think every idea which includes spashing about large amounts of money is a grand idea. Only later does it turn out to be a big waste as do most incentive schemes. Perhaps they would be able to lower the tax rates instead of having all these incentive schemes to BUY votes!

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