Brian Brady 
At the RBA meeting on Tuesday it was announced that interest rates would again be cut (following a 0.25% drop in October), by a further 0.25%. The cash rate is now sitting at just 3%, the same as at the peak of the global financial crisis in April 2009. This got our team at Professionals Keith Brady Real Estate thinking, what does this mean for the average Everton Park home owner?
According to mortgage advisor Jason Khoury (from iChoice Concord), most Australians tend to keep their mortgages on variable terms for as long as they can afford to, hoping to reap the benefits of any cuts that are made. While it is still uncertain as to which banks will pass on Tuesday’s cut, and how much of it they will choose to pass on, there are currently some very attractive 3 and 5 year fixed rates on offer if you (or your broker) are willing to hunt around.
The main benefit to fixing interest rates is security. If you believe it would fall somewhere in the range of ‘tricky’ to ‘impossible’ to pay off your mortgage if rates were to increase by 1 or 2 per cent, you may sleep easier at night knowing you’re locked in at an affordable rate. This may be a good time to assess your finances and weigh up just how healthy your bank balance is. At the end of the day, if you come out of your fixed loan period to discover that in fact you would have been better off staying variable, at least you know that you didn’t waste any time or lose sleep worrying about the affordability of your home during that time.
Naturally, if you are easily affording your mortgage repayments every month, you may prefer to stay on a variable home loan for now. The variable rates are generally lower than fixed, and while your rate is likely to face increases you will also get an immediate benefit from rate cuts as well.
Our Professionals Real Estate team in Everton Park would love to help home owners and buyers alike so if you’re new to our blog and either own your home or are in the market to buy, please go back and read our tips for making the most of interest rate cuts.
If you are in the market to purchase your own slice of Everton Park real estate, now’s a great time to buy. Naturally we’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to contact us on 07 3355 0455.