Good news Stories

[The Great Gold Guru]

Just to let you know if you didn't already realise. ANZ will let you "book" a rate if you are within 60days of a fixed rate maturing. I reserved 6.15% 3Yr fixed this morning on 3 loans coming off their fixed rates in early May. Saved me having to pay break fees but still got me some certainty.

ASB are certainly putting the pressure on to get into some fixed rates soon with their huge increase this morning.

[peat]

yeh westpac is the same TGGG. I locked in a few weeks ago with rollover in a fortnight. with ASB at 7.25 for 5 yrs as of today my 6.5 feels good

[The Great Gold Guru]

I see Westpac have raised their rates this arvo ... even pushed up the 2Yr to 6.25% which is a bit of a shock. Cameron Baigre ( chief economist at ANZ National ) reckon it might pay to have a certain amount of debt at 6mths and just keep rolling it every 180 days ... short term rates to stay lower for longer but the yield curve to stay steep.

I have another mortgage coming of on June 17th and plan to adopt this strategy if 6mth rates are still around the 5.79% level. 2 more small OCR cuts in the meantime may push the 6mth rate lower .. possible it may be up to 1.50% cheaper than say a 3yr rate .. and possibly 2.00% cheaper than a 5Yr which will mean it will be "worth the punt" for a while.

Happy to have 1/4 of my exposure fixed today at 6.15% until May 2012 having said all that.

[minimoke]

Just to let you know if you didn't already realise. ANZ will let you "book" a rate if you are within 60days of a fixed rate maturing.

Thanks for that TGGG I wasn’t aware of that and I am with ANZ. I have them for their rate shaving so I’ll have to try this when my fixed comes off in July.

[cliff]

Great news for first home buyers in both Rotorua & Wanganui...$125,000 will now get you into a 3 bdr property. Both these towns have been punching well above their weight for some time...finally getting back to some normality.

[The Great Gold Guru]

I have four rentals in Wanganui ... all are cashflow positive assuming 90% gearing and 6.00% interest rates. Local Govt rates are high , something to beware of. ( I was looking at a property in One Tree Hill the other day CV $530,000 ... rates are lower than one of my rentals in Wanganui with a CV of $150,000 ! )

[The Great Gold Guru]

ANZ have upped their 3yr rate to 6.75% this morning ... going in yesterday will save me $5814 over the next three years !!

[The Great Gold Guru]

ANZ's 5Yr rate is now 7.50% ... OUCH !!! ( and National Bank, TSB )

SBS Bank still at 6.69% 5Yr, won't last, get in TODAY !!

[minimoke]

ANZ's 5Yr rate is now 7.50%

Well that’s good news. Since I already have a mortgage its nice to know I’ll get a 7.50% net return on any excess cash I have – I’ll just stick it on the mortgage and decrease my loan amount which reduces my interest payments. 7.5% - can’t be too many places that will give me that as a net return!.

[The Great Gold Guru]

WOW!! ....

Auckland housing market out of hibernation, Barfoot & Thompson says (corrected)
April 3rd, 2009
Auckland’s largest real estate agency group, Barfoot and Thompson, has reported sales volumes jumped in March to a 20 month high as buyers “returned with a vengeance” and sellers accepted a slight fall in prices to clear the market.

“Certainly in March, the Auckland housing market emerged from its hibernation,” Barfoot and Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson said in a statement titled ‘Buyers return to Auckland housing market with vengeance.’

Barfoot’s average sale price in March was NZ$491,780, down 5.8% from March 2008 and down 4.1% from February. It reported 924 sales, up 65.3% from February and up 46.2% from a year ago. The March average was down 8.7% 12.8% from Barfoot’s peak average of NZ$538,478 in December 2007 NZ$564,162 in March 2007.

“We sold close to 300 homes more in March than in any month in the whole of 2008,” Thompson said.

Thompson said factors affecting March’s sales activity were the traditional March spike, further falls in the Reserve Bank OCR, bank mortgage rates reaching new lows and knowledge that tax cuts were about to kick in.

“A recovery of this order is greater than any expectation, and it may well contain an element of released intention,” Thompson said.

“Buyers may be sensing that market prices are close to the bottom of the cycle and have made the decision to act,” he said.

“At the same time sellers are accepting that a price that is on average only 6 percent below values being achieved 12 months ago is realistic in the current market, and are ready to accept.”

“It means that the market is active, and the housing market is edging further back to normality.”

“Another indicator of returning confidence is the level of interest shown at auctions. In March we saw our best attendance numbers for 12 months, and we sold some 65 to 70 percent of all the homes that we put to the market.”

“In February, we reported prices firmed on modest turnover, while this month turnover was extremely strong with prices coming off marginally.”