In money news that will affect your hip pocket this week.
Housing collapse?
Economists have rejected claims that Australia is heading for an imminent collapse of the housing market as rules on foreign investors are tightened.
Financy more on housing market news?
Home loan mistakes
Australia’s largest online lender loans.com.au has urged Australians who are purchasing a home in this spring buying season to carefully research their loan options before signing on the bottom line as research shows that many borrowers are paying vastly more than they need to.
Founder Kim Cannon said homebuyers who assumed that all lenders offered broadly similar value were making a big mistake.
Mr Cannon said data from comparison site Canstar showed that a homebuyer who borrowed $450,000 could pay more than $114,000 in extra interest over the life of the loan if they made the wrong choice instead of borrowing from loans.com.au (see table below) with its remarkably low interest rate.
Private health worries
CHOICE’s latest Consumer Pulse report has found health cost concerns have jumped by 9 per cent, taking them to their highest level since the quarterly national survey began 24 months ago.
It’s estimated that 74 per cent of Australian households have cited healthcare as a source of economic worry, in the wake of a 48 per cent cumulative increase in private health insurance premiums, over the last seven years.
Australians’ optimism about the economy has been on the slide, with just 24 per cent of those surveyed rating the economy as good and 41 per cent believing the economy is neither performing well or poorly.