Has the rate rise piqued your interest?
Published 1 year, 3 months ago in Making News. 
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you would have heard the Reserve Bank has put interest rates up .25 per cent.
That means house repayments go up and rent will probably follow. But does a quarter of a per cent really make that much difference? And how many of us know what our current home loan rate is?
How has the rise affected you?
5 Responses to “Has the rate rise piqued your interest?”
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It has impacted on my family to the extent that two children have been removed from child care one day a week to save money.
Not only are the interest rates hurting but so is the associated costs with just the necessities of life like food, rates, medical expenses, petrol…
Two parents working part time to accomodate three children under six…I hurt myself to watch their struggle…..
Until the government steps in the stops the tax break advantage for negative gearing the cost of housing (and its interest incurred) will become astronomical. My children cannot afford to live in Glen Eira and instead have a mortgage in the hills….but the costs of running the car with public transport not an option is an additional expense - one that competes with interest rates in its impact on families.
Some people own four houses, and that’s greedy, some people have no home and will never be able to purchase one but of the horrendous rent costs.
This is a very tricky one! I know where you are coming from with the negative gearing Mary, but take that away and no one will buy properties for rental purposes. Another problem is in the Government rental market, people who can now afford to buy their”Housing Commission” house and are being offered it at a good price, are saying “no, if I buy I have to pay for all the maintenance and so on”. Many of them have already raised their kids and their are only the two of them left, taking up a three or 4 bedroom house someone else is desperate for. I believe if they won’t buy it, and release the money for more public housing, they should be moved to a smaller premises.
Sorry I missed your point initially with regards “rates” thinking in terms of housing interest rates but this morning I have posted my own experience with the Council Rates as distinct from Housing Interest Rates.
Whatever avenue the expense title takes, it is still adding considerably to people’s ability to have any money left for things other than paying bills - not to mention interest rates on Credit Cards also…As a result of your question yesterday I went through my Rate file for many years and was thoroughly depressed by the figures before me….
And yet Council continues to waste our money on renewing perfectly acceptable parks, gardens and shopping centre facilities…..Not everything has to be on a grand scale and many of us for settle for “simple” and save our money. Sport is such an expensive hobby, we can’t really afford to keep it in the manner to which it has grown accustomed. Glen Eira also needs to look at is recurrent salary charges which residents cannot sustain at its current levels.
I think this most recent rate rise will have an impact on most because when you combine it with the increase in food prices brought on by the drought and the increase in petrol costs because fuel companies can many families will be hurting.
One new product that I have heard of that might help some is a new mortgage that doesn’t charge any fees like the banks and gives you 25c per litre off of fuel or a discount on health insurance. Whilst these may seem very small they do add up to over $1000 a year for most families and would be worth checking out.
Schemes like this dont get much publicity as the big banks try to shut them down but this is a local Victorian business, which I think will take off as it is trying to do the right thing by consumers. They are called M Plus.
Anything is worth a try if you are hurting. Me on the otherhand I am looking to buy and can’t believe some of the prices wanted for places which need a lot of work - people are getting too greedy.
Chelsea, something for everyone to think about from a recent Herald Sun article. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is! Be warned!
Young people who are planning to buy their own home in the near future are warned of a new scheme being aimed at those who do not have a deposit to put up front. This scheme is called a “Wrap”, “Vendor” or” “Rent/Sell” mortgage, promoted on a recent current affairs programme by an ex presenter, and is currently being investigated by Victorian Consumers Affairs.
Briefly, in this scheme a “Vendor” buys a house by taking out a mortgage, then advertises and resells it to someone else on no deposit, and that buyer pays ”rent”, at a rate higher than the Vendors required mortgage payment, until the property is paid for. The “Buyer” has no equity in the house until the loan is completely paid off. Any missed payments, by either Vendor or Buyer can result in the Buyer being evicted, and all money paid lost.