The average mortgage for Australians buying an existing home has hit half a million dollars thanks largely to ongoing record-low interest rates.
Seeing as wages are, and have been, in a flatline state it is raising concerns people are having to take on large debts.
Here in Victoria the average mortgage has risen to $517,900, while in Sydney it is higher at $621,500.
Statistics took a spike around the same time the RBA started cutting rates again from the middle of last year, confirming the obvious link between swelling mortgage averages and interest rates.
CommSec’s Craig James told The Sydney Morning Herald the half-million dollar average mortgage figure was unlikely to keep rising quickly due to lack of wage growth and if it did the RBA would be concerned.
“The RBA governor has said if it gets a bit crazy, if there’s irrational exuberance, then it would have to look at what is going on,” he said.
The real estate sector has been showing signs of strength of late, with total home loan approvals jumping 4.4 per cent in December, first-home buyer loans up 6.2 per cent and investment lending up 2.8 per cent.
This is despite the rest of the economy finding things tough to get going.
“The concern this month is the decline in employment,” NAB chief economist Alan Oster told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“It is now below average and a worry given the labour market has been a bright spot in the economic data.
