Offers for readers

The comment stream

Recent comments

Join the Interest community to be a registered commenter so you can:
- Edit your comments
- Avoid the CAPTCHA
- Vote on comments
Register Here

Already registered? log back in here ..

Forgotten your password? No problem! Click here

Finance sector jobs

Investment Associate - Portfolio Management Team
Dimensional Fund Advisors are an international asset management firm with offices in the U...more
Australia
Research Analyst - Australian market
ISS, a subsidiary of MSCI Inc, is currently seeking a full-time Research Analyst. This pos...more
Australia
Investment Manager
This private equity firm has an operational focus and works closely with their portfolio, ...more
Australia
Compliance Associate
Top Tier Global Fund Manager, Compliance Monitoring, Reporting and Policy Development, Att...more
Australia
efinancialcareers.com

Reader poll

Who do you think should be appointed Reserve Bank Governor to replace Alan Bollard when he retires in September?

Choices

Housing report: Why the changing mortgage rates curve matters

Posted in News

See video on YouTube here.

Bernard Hickey delivers a Housing Report on the way the mortgage rates curve is changing and what it means for homeowners.

Short term and variable mortgage rates are either flat or falling while longer term mortgage rates are rising. This has turned the mortgage market on its head so that now variable rates are cheaper than fixed rates. This 'steepness' of the mortgage rate curve is increasing and forcing home owners to decide whether variable is better than fixed. One option is to hedge your bets by having half fixed and half floating.

See here for an interactive chart on the steepness of the mortgage rates curve.

We welcome your help to improve our coverage of this issue. Any examples or experiences to relate? Any links to other news, data or research to shed more light on this? Any insight or views on what might happen next or what should happen next? Any errors to correct?

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment in the box on the right or click on the "'Register" link at the bottom of the comments. Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making these comments.

6 Comments

Keep an eye on the

Keep an eye on the Japanese govt bond issue costs. I'm told rates are rising. That's important. Might mean the end of the carry trade in Yen. likely to lead to higher priced fixed term loot in the land with the housing bubble economy.

A mortgage is usually secured

A mortgage is usually secured by the real property being purchased and sometimes through personal property

SPAM SPAM SPAM above

SPAM SPAM SPAM above

It is important<a href="http://www.globaltimberland.com/timberla

It is importantwaterproof hiking boots
to sort out all expenses to determine which correspond to a specific product, locationmens waterproof boots
or customer, which are allocable basedwaterproof boots women
on workload, usage or some other cost driver, and which expenses are accumulated centrally for the benefit of the company as a whole. By determining whethertimberland pro
the costs are accurately accounted for, a comparisontimberland for kids
between product, customer or location may point to a specific cost that needs attention.

Thanks ruru, it's gone now

Thanks ruru, it's gone now

Fix it. I fixed 75%

Fix it. I fixed 75% of it almost a year ago when everybody told me not to at 6.5% for 4 years. For that same term you now pay 8.5%

I think variable rates will snap up suddenly and then there will be a run on fixed rates that will shoot up even faster.

Staying on variable rates is a dangerous cat and mouse game that is bound to bite you in the ass because those rates are about as low as they will go.