After a couple of weeks rest in the Northern Hemisphere escaping winter and the rain, the R&W blog is back in action!

Many of you will be experiencing school holidays and we hope that you have many activities planned in this very wet weather!

As mentioned in our early June post – we saw a change in the market in late May – we are now seeing buyers & sellers adjusting to the new conditions and the Northern Beaches property market  is now gaining greater comfort and an additional understanding of the new more balanced market place.

Following the stabilisation of interest rates in June & July, the question on many people’s lips – is will we see a continued pause or another increase during the election campaign?

Time tells all things  – Harry Triguboff of Meriton Apartments has suggested again this week that Australia’s property shortage will not be properly addressed until interest rates fall again, if this is the case then it maybe some time before it will be addressed.

Looking at the most recently released economic data – The Australian economy is emanating mixed signals at present, ensuring that the Reserve Bank will stay on the interest rate sidelines for another month.

Some are asking if the current sovereign debt problems afflicting Greece and Portugal – could create a GFC Mark II. In reality the main risk that this creates is pessimism, which often becomes self-perpetuating.

Reading into Macquarie Banks recent comments regarding the property market losing momentum…  “Like an in-form thoroughbred, the Australian economy enters the second half of 2010 in good shape, but is likely to be carrying much more lead in the saddle-bags as it heads into 2011. This principally reflects the impact of higher interest rates on household spending, as well as the gradual withdrawal of fiscal stimulus. Business confidence has been shaken by the impasse between the government and resource firms over mining taxation. And while that has now been resolved, confidence could continue to be undermined by other concerns, such as ongoing sovereign risk issues in the peripheral European economies and significant global financial market volatility. While we are ultimately optimistic that bullish investment plans will be realised, the transition from consumer and government-led growth to investment-led growth could be rocky, and is likely to be consistent with slower growth overall.”

We don’t see anything unusual in the annual pattern that generally see’s a slowdown with the inclement weather.  Active buyers will be aware of the low numbers common for this time of year – as always certain segments of the market are a lot stronger than others.

This week we have enjoyed a very strong response to the property at 12 Daisy Street North Balgowlah – after bidding started to stall in the early $900,000’s another wave of enthusiastic bidding took the final result to $1,022,000!

Also this week Maria Cassarino set a new Street Record for Illalong Avenue in North Balgowlah,  selling number 5 which sold prior to auction for $1.875 Million! Making it the second highest residential sale achieved in North Balgowlah!!

We appreciate that there is conflicting information out there to prospective vendors and buyers and  a lot of industry jargon! This compiled with the end of the financial year can leave you with questions still remaining unanswered for your own property goals and real estate needs.

Therefore we will are offering a confidential FREE No Obligation – End of Financial Year Property Market Update to anyone who has any further questions about their property or the market in general. If this is of interest or you have any further questions – please give us a call  at the office 9948 7080 or drop in and say hi and meet the team!

Wishing you all the best in your  property goals,

The Team at Richardson & Wrench Seaforth Balgowlah.

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See you at the open for inspections: Click Here for our open times

To keep an eye on this week’s reported Seaforth real estate, Clontarf real estate, Balgowlah real estate, Balgowlah Heights real estate and North Balgowlah real estate Click Here*

*Sales are as reported by Australian Property monitors on 8/07/2010

9.07.10

Tags: 12 Daisy Street North Balgowlah, 5 Illalong Avenue North Balgowlah, Australian economy, Australian Property monitors, Australia’s property shortage, Balgowlah, Balgowlah Heights, Balgowlah Heights real estate, Balgowlah real estate, Clontarf, Clontarf real estate, Daisy Street, Harry Triguboff, interest rates, Macquarie Banks, Maria Cassarino, Meriton Apartments, North Balgowlah, North Balgowlah real estate, R&W blog, Richardson & Wrench Seaforth Balgowlah, Seaforth, Seaforth real estate  •  

Posted in Real News

It seems to depend on who you chat to and which articles you read at the moment as to whether interest rates are moving up or staying put, when the reserve bank meets on the 4th of May.

On one hand, a recent online survey of 3500 people shows that over 70 are expecting an increase again next month.

With headline inflation rising by 0.9% in the March quarter, there is argument for another rise now, before pausing to monitor how the Australian economy performs back at the lower level of ‘neutral interest rates’.

On the other hand, there is a level of uncertainty which may prompt the Reserve Bank to keep the cash rate at 4.25%, particularly in light of the instability in the European Union and the repercussions of Greece’s crumbling economy, as an article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph “Greece rates gift” suggests.

Some turbulence is being felt in the financial markets with the news of Greece’s credit rating being moved to “Junk” status with a $430 billion national debt. Portugal & Spain are also in the firing line with fear of the debt crisis spreading.

Realistically, whether the bank increases the cash rate this month or they wait a little longer, our feeling is that the trend will continue with a couple more eventual increases to push interest rates firmly back into the Reserve Bank’s ‘neutral territory’.

Meanwhile, mortgage stress seems to be coming back into the popular media vernacular. It is more likely to be felt by the first home buyers who extended themselves to purchase their first home & who are feeling for the first time the extra pressure created by the upward jolts of interest rates. For seasoned property market players who have been through the rate cycle before, it is familiar territory where interest rates are required to trend up significantly before the ‘mortgage stress’ term starts to truly become appropriate – particularly for our lovely part of the world.

Confidence continues to be strong, as seen in the ‘Consumer Sentiment & Business Confidence’ graph below.

With many savvy buyers having already factored in interest rate increases when setting their budget, and with confidence levels remaining in very positive territory, we see no reason for the market not to continue on its current positive trend.

Till we meet again, wishing you all the best in your property search!

The Team at R&W Seaforth/Balgowlah.

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See you at the open for inspections: Click Here for our open times

To keep an eye on this week’s reported Seaforth real estate, Clontarf real estate, Balgowlah real estate, Balgowlah Heights real estate and North Balgowlah real estate Click Here*

*Sales are as reported by Australian Property monitors on 29/04/2010

30.04.10

Tags: Australian economy, Australian Property monitors, Balgowlah, Balgowlah Heights, Balgowlah Heights real estate, Balgowlah real estate, Business Confidence, cash rate, Clontarf, Clontarf real estate, credit rating, European Union, financial markets, Greece, headline inflation, inflation, interest rates, mortgage stress, neutral interest rates, North Balgowlah, North Balgowlah real estate, open for inspections, property search, R&W, R&W Seaforth, R&W Seaforth/Balgowlah, Reserve Bank, Seaforth, Seaforth real estate  •  

Posted in Real News

First & foremost – Happy Easter from the team at Richardson & Wrench Seaforth (R&W)

Looking through the long weekend with the economic data at hand it would appear a safe bet that interest rates will continue the upward trend next Tuesday with the markets pricing a better then 60% chance of an increase.

The rate increase curve may be levelling out as we move back to the neutral cash rate. Last week Assistant Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Philip Lowe has stated that the underlying inflation has “moderated significantly” and is expected to decline from 3.25 per cent to about 2.5 per cent during 2010.

Dr Lowe has reinforced that the central bank’s view that the Australian economy had “relatively limited spare capacity” and that it was likely interest rates would move towards “more normal” levels.

Depending on who you listen to we may be looking at another 3 interest rate increases over 2010 (up a total of 75 basis points) if you take the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) suggestion then the rate increases could be a more aggressive with 5 increases up a total of 125 basis points.

RBA Governor Glen Stevens, stated this week that house prices are “getting quite high” and suggested that interest rates may need to be increased further to contain inflation.

On the coal face we have seen buyers factoring in interest rates, returning to historical levels since the economy started to turn around last year. So the strong demand we feel will continue as interest rates increase as there should be no surprises as to what is happening.

We feel that if the variable interest rates move above 7.5% then we will see interest rates having an impact and providing downward pressure on the local housing market. In the past we have seen other parts of Sydney show signs of housing slowing before there is any noticeable impact on the Northern Beaches. Looking across Sydney we are not seeing signs of the market cooling off with auction clearance rates sitting around 70%, the market is looking quite solid.

First & foremost – Happy Easter from the team at Richardson & Wrench Seaforth (R&W)

As shown in the above diagram while auction clearance rates sit substantially over 50% then the market should continue to move strongly.

Over the past month we have seen an increase in the number of homes selling within the first week on the market, selling off our database previews before moving to a more aggressive marketing campaign. Talking to a number of buyers this week the frustration has been building as our database keeps growing at a much faster rate than properties are selling. With a number of new listings hitting the market after Easter we hope to be able to satisfy some of the current demand.

We look forward to your posts on the blog with any additional thoughts & comments from our readers.

Please feel free to email us if you have any further questions about the market or real estate in general – it would be great to hear from you.

Till we meet again, wishing you all the best in your property search!

The Team at R&W Seaforth/Balgowlah.

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See you at the open for inspections: Click Here for our open times

To keep an eye on this week’s reported Seaforth real estate, Clontarf real estate, Balgowlah real estate, Balgowlah Heights real estate and North Balgowlah real estate Click Here*

*Sales are as reported by Australian Property monitors on 1/04/2010

1.04.10

Tags: Auction, auction clearance rates, Australian economy, Australian Property monitors, Balgowlah, Balgowlah Heights, Balgowlah Heights real estate, Balgowlah real estate, CBA, central bank, Clontarf, Clontarf real estate, Glen Stevens, Governor Glen Stevens, Happy Easter, inflation, interest rates, local housing market, neutral cash rate, North Balgowlah, North Balgowlah real estate, Northern Beaches, Philip Lowe, property search, R&W, R&W Seaforth/Balgowlah, RBA, Reserve Bank of Australia, Richardson & Wrench, Richardson & Wrench Seaforth, Seaforth, Seaforth real estate, Sydney, underlying inflation, Variable interest rates  •  

Posted in Real News