First home owner's grant boost

[Ethnic]

". . .house prices have gone up in some areas. . ." yup in the $400K and under category there is still buying and selling of homes, my realter mates tell me over $800K is pretty dead.

So in Adelaide does that mean that there is more demand in areas like Seaton, Parafield Gardens and Noarlunga than there is in St Peters, Norwood and Springfield?

[Jovial Monk]

Yup.

[Ethnic]

Awesome, maybe I should look for a house in West Lakes

[Jovial Monk]

Apparently nice houses are available in Flagstaff Hill/Aberfoyle Park area.

[Rainbow Moonlight]

You may wish to post your views here:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2551064.htm

[JW Frogen]

I have already bought my first home, the grant must be repealed to service economic dignity.

A new grant should be established for people who are thinking of buying a second, investment home.

People like me.

[boxy]

The FHOG for newly built homes has kept a lot of builders in work and meant that property prices have come down in an orderly, measured fashion...

Wah?

Making it more affordable for people to get into the housing market for the first time, by giving the seller an extra, free 20K brings prices down?

Basically what the govt is doing with the FHOG is artificially increasing the demand for new houses. In a free market, that means an increase in price, not a decrease.

[Jovial Monk]

You are forgetting we are in a pretty deep, global recession. Prices are still coming down.

[Hebe]

Leftofcentresalterego on Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:35 am

what the government is doing with the FHOG is artificially increasing the demand for new houses



Precisely - at a time when demand is slumping. Most unlikely to boost the price. Of course the FHOG did inflate prices under the ratty and tip government because demand was booming at the time. In my little resource town, a significant portion of the workforce - well paid resource workers many of them - have just lost their jobs and have no means to continue paying their mortgages. The place will soon be awash with available housing while job opportunities continue to evaporate, and so too local mortgage lending opportunities.

There is bugger all for local builders to do.

The FHOG has it's limitations in times such as these of course, because all it can do is give people a deposit - it can't actually create credit-worthy customers for the banks to extend credit to. Putting $21 grand in the pocket of someone who is employed in an industry that is currently shedding labour isn't going to make them less of a credit risk. If the government intends to phase it out it is probably because they have decided that it is near the limit of it's usefullness and they will re-direct the spending elsewhere. Direct job creation would be a good start!

[JW Frogen]

Our debt renders our economy unsustainable so we must ply more debt via tax liabilities to future generations to make our economy sustainable?

Purple print money dish washer.