First Home Buyers - November 15th Squirrel: Is it Better to Fix or Float your Mortgage? This is particularly relevant right now, while everyone is talking up inflation and higher interest rates. One thing is for sure, whether you fix or float your mortgage, you cannot avoid paying higher interest rates. …
First Home Buyers - November 8th Mortgage Rates to hit 5%: How Much Will Your Mortgage Cost? Mortgage rates are already on the up. Back in mid-July, the average mortgage rates for 1- and 2-year fixed mortgages looked like this: July 2021, average rates: Term 1-Year 2-Year Average rate 2.55% 2.86% Now they look like this: November 2021, average rates: Term 1-Year 2-Year Average rate 3.44% 4.03% Source: www.canstar.co.nz. …
Home Loans - October 19th Real Estate vs Shares: Which is the Better Investment? Money in the bank, as the old adage goes, is money in the bank. It’s always going to be a reliable, liquid asset. But in these days of ultra-low interest rates, money stuck in a …
Home Loans - October 6th Squirrel: Buying a home in 2021 vs. 2008 Back in 2008, in the middle of the Global Financial Crisis, I founded Squirrel mortgage brokers. One of my first clients was a couple who were looking to buy their first home in Auckland. They had a combined income …
Home Loans - October 1st What is a Reverse Mortgage? Everything You Need to Know Depending on how much you’ve saved over the years, retirement can be an exercise in budgeting. While superannuation payments are a welcome reward for years of tax-paying, they are unlikely to cover the cost of …
Home Loans - September 21st Squirrel: Lockdown May Boost House Prices In my last column looking at the property market around New Zealand, I wrote about the end-game being underway for the three-decade period of high average house price rises. I remain of that view but, for …
Home Loans - September 8th Rate rises are on hold. But how should you fix your mortgage? The Reserve Bank’s decision to pause an Official Cash Rate rise leaves homeowners with a dilemma. The rapid escalation to a level-4 lockdown delayed this month’s seemingly inevitable rise, but odds are still on a …
Home Loans - September 8th Squirrel: House price forecast for 2022 We are starting to see commentators and even the Reserve Bank talk about falling house prices towards the back-end of next year. We should not be surprised that none of them are from real estate …
First Home Buyers - September 1st Mortgage Rates: How Quickly Will They Rise? Recently we've published a few stories reporting impending interest rate rises. Usually, we don't go in for divination. But when the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) and economists such as Tony Alexander are both forecasting rate rises, …
Home Loans - August 30th Why the Housing Market is Slowing Down There are a growing number of factors in play that suggest that while demand for housing will remain firm and house construction strong, we've entered the end game for the period of strong house price …
