So, we’re having a bit of a bounce in housing finance. Owner occupied was up 1.6% in July and investors 1.9%. Nothing too extravagant but certainly a rising from the floor. To the knees one might say:
We’ve recovered much of the territory lost in the first half slump, though as you can see the levels are still historically quite low. No doubt this is a response to the realisation that began to dawn in July that interest rates had peaked – the Bill Evans effect. There will no doubt be some pent-up demand ready to unfold.
Moreover, at the same time that Bill Evans launched his audacious putsch, the banks began cutting fixed-term rates, so we’ve got something of a refinancing boom going on too.
On a state by state basis, however, the recovery is patchy to say the least:
In fact, month on month, only NSW and QLD grew, the former up 0.8% and the latter a huge 5%. VIC was down slightly, SA was down 2.4% and WA was down 0.7%.
So, it’s also something of a QLD bounce this release. It was awful low.
