The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Thursday, August 2, 2012

AFG has biggest July for home loans since 2007--first time buyers up to 17.3%

Interesting news from Australia's largest mortgage broker:

AFG processed more home loans last month than for any July since 2007 according to new figures published today. The latest AFG Mortgage Index shows that the company processed $2,732 million of mortgages in July. This is an increase of nearly 20% on July 2011 and matches the previous peak of $2,760 million in July 2007.

The strong figures were driven by First Home Buyers, whose market share leapt from 15.6% of all mortgages arranged in June to 17.3% in July. This is the highest figure for First Home Buyers since August 2010. First Home Buyers were strongest in WA, where they represented almost a quarter of all new mortgages arranged (22.7%), and were also well represented in Victoria (21.7%). They were less in evidence in NSW (14.4%), QLD (13.8%) and SA (9.6%).
at 8:40 AM