Housing loan numbers begin to fall for first home buyers

Thursday the 17th of December, 2009 8 Comments »

Posted by Iden Money .

(source: REIA Housing Affordability Report, September Quarter 2009)

Although there were no significant changes in housing affordability in the September quarter, the total number of loans began to decrease, particularly in the first home buyer market.

The number of loans to the first home buyers decreased by 11.7% to 48,507 loans. Despite this decrease in the September quarter, over the year, loans for first home buyers nationally increased by 72.8% and the total number of loans increased by 41.3%.

The Australian Capital Territory remained the most affordable state or territory in which to buy a home, where the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increased slightly to 17.2%.  This is 11.8 percentage points below the national average. New South Wales remained the least affordable state or territory in which to buy a home, where the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increased to 31.2%; 2.3 percentage points above the national average.

For the September quarter, Tasmania and Queensland showed the biggest improvement in housing affordability, with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments decreasing by 1.3 percentage points. Housing affordability in Victoria declined the most, with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increasing by 0.9 percentage points for the September quarter.