With just one RBA rate decision left for 2024, homeowners may be holding onto hopes of a summer cut. We look at when rates may start falling – and how you could possibly give yourself a rate cut before Christmas. “Are we there yet?” It’s the catch cry of kids on long summer road trips, and it could just as easily apply to homeowners waiting for much-anticipated rate cuts. The good news is that we appear to be getting closer – with many banks forecasting a possible RBA rate cut by the end of summer. Rates on hold for November

Saving for a 20% house deposit is like house training a wilful Labrador. It requires plenty of patience and persistence. Not your thing? You could take out lenders mortgage insurance (LMI). But how much extra does that cost? And can you avoid paying for it? (for the LMI, not the dog…) LMI is a type of insurance that protects the lender (not you or any guarantors) if you can’t keep up with your home loan repayments. It’s typically applied to home loans when your deposit is less than 20%. And right now, that’s the case for many home buyers. A recent Mozo study found

It’s the great Australian dream for many: giving the 9-to-5 grind the flick and running your own show. But when it comes to taking out a home loan, being your own boss can dish up some unexpected hammer blows. Rightly or wrongly, lenders tend to see self-employed borrowers as a higher risk compared to employees. That’s largely because, by and large, their income isn’t as guaranteed. In addition, it’s likely their earnings won’t be the same each pay day – they may differ, sometimes substantially, from one month to the next. In a lender’s eyes this has the potential to impact

Negative gearing is in the headlines again. But what is it all about, and could it affect you? We explain how negative gearing works, why it’s so popular among investors, and why it’s attracting fresh attention. Australians love property. So much so that more than one-in-ten adults (2,268,161 Australians) own an investment property. So why is property such a popular investment? Well, landlords can earn regular, consistent rental income. That’s extra cash to pay off the investment loan. Additionally, over the past 100 years, national property prices have risen 10.9% per year on average, according to AMP insights. This kind of

Planning to buy your first home? It takes (on average) about five to six years to save a deposit at present. But who’s got the patience to save for six years? Today we’ll look at four ways you could fast-track home ownership. They say patience is a virtue. But the narrator/protagonist of the poem that coined that famous phrase was an idle vagabond – not exactly an inspiration for eager homeowners in a competitive market. So today we’ll throw patience out the window and walk you through some ways you could beat the national average of 5.6 years when it comes to saving a house deposit

Thinking of holding off buying until interest rates fall? Wait until you see what could happen to home prices. Here’s why it could make sense to buy sooner rather than later if you’re home loan-ready. September saw the nation’s official cash rate kept on hold once again. But there is growing consensus that the RBA may cut the cash rate at one of its next few meetings. Several of the big banks, including Westpac and NAB, are expecting rate cuts in the first half of next year. Others, such as the Commonwealth Bank, are forecasting a rate cut in time for Christmas. While lower