First home buyers shrug off the credit crunch as home loans are bigger than ever

PHOTO: Despite tighter credit conditions and falling property prices, first home buyer mortgages have never been bigger. ABC News: Stephen Letts

There’s nothing unusual about the current fall in house prices — it’s the third time in the past decade.

However as ANZ’s head of Australian economics, David Plank, points out, it is unusual that it hasn’t been higher interest rates putting the brake on things.

Indeed, house prices started rolling over early last year, while mortgage rates have barely moved in that time.

In the 2009 slump, average mortgage rates peaked at well over 9 per cent. In 2012 they nearly reached 8 per cent — the graph below inverts the mortgage rate to align them with house prices.

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