The number of home loans surged in September after two straight months of decline, as first home buyers flocked to the market ahead of the October 1 roll back of the first home owner grant.

But the reprieve may be temporary, with economists expecting a sharp pull-back in the market in October and November as potential home owners grapple with rising interest rates.

Australian housing finance commitments for owner-occupied housing rose 5.1 per cent in September, seasonally adjusted, to 65,505 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Monday.

This compares to a 1.9 per cent fall in August and 1.6 per cent fall in July. The September figure also beat market expectations of a three per cent rise.

Total housing finance by value was also strong, rising by 4.8 per cent in September, seasonally adjusted, to $23.847 billion - it’s highest level since June 2007 when it reached a record $24.531 billion.
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Australia’s jobless rate has risen to a four-year high as employment growth stalls and more people join the search for work.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on Thursday showed the nation’s jobless rate reached 5.2 per cent in February, up from 4.8 per cent the previous month, and above market forecasts for a 5.0 per cent jobless rate.

The unemployment rate touched a 33-year low of 3.9 per cent in February 2008 and, apart from a blip in August, has moved steadily higher.
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It would be a mistake to think the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has ruled out an interest rate cut next week.

The debt futures market certainly hasn’t - it has priced in a cut in the cash rate of at least a quarter of a percentage point to 3.00 per cent or, more likely according to the market, 2.75 per cent.

This is despite the absence of any clear signal in recent speeches and announcements from the RBA, a conspicuous omission that has led some economists to predict the cash rate to be unchanged after the RBA’s board wraps up its monthly monetary policy meeting on March 3.
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Personal borrowing has posted its biggest rise in six months as consumers took advantage of lower interest rates to refinance existing loans.

But economists say the threat of rising unemployment is likely to cap any further increase in personal loans in coming months.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data showed total personal finance commitments rose by a seasonally adjusted 4.1 per cent in December to $6.361 billion.
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Lending figures released on Monday confirm there are signs of life in the housing sector but that the flow of credit to businesses is weak.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the value of personal loans rose by 4.1 per cent in December, seasonally adjusted, reversing falls of about two per cent in October and November.

The figures confirmed data released last week showing a jump in lending to home-buyers, with a 6.8 per cent rise in December, helped by the bigger first-home buyers grant.
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Increases in first home owners grants and falling interest rates have led to the highest number of first home buyers purchasing homes in NSW in two decades, the state’s Premier Nathan Rees says.

In October the federal government lifted the first home owners grant from $7,000 to $14,000 for established homes and to $21,000 for newly-constructed houses.

In the November mini-budget, an additional $3,000 was made available to NSW first home buyers.
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A further substantial official interest rate cut and another federal government stimulus package can be expected in the coming days as the risk of a recession grows.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd conceded on Monday that a deepening global recession and a halving of economic growth in China will cut a hefty $115 billion off tax revenues over the next four years and that the budget will have to go into a temporary deficit.

This is $75 billion more than estimated just three months ago.
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The nation’s top earners are either in the ACT, Western Australia or NSW.

They are public servants, miners or work in property and business services, an analysis of the 2006 Census shows.

The largest proportion of high-income earners live in South Canberra - 59.8 per cent of them - where the biggest employer is government administration or defence.
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The biggest quarterly fall in inflation for more than a decade opens the way for another big interest rate cut to help kick-start the struggling economy, economists say.

Headline inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), fell 0.3 per cent in the December quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

This was the biggest quarterly fall since the September quarter of 1997, and followed the previous quarter’s 1.2 per cent rise.
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