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Thanks. Can you link to some articles etc. that cover this. I couldn't find anything from a quick google search. Do you have a link to something that shows that the majority of US fixed borrowers incur no penalty to move to a lower rate? Does it also apply to the majority of fixed subprime...

Oh - it's been moved out to 2010 now. When did that happen? :rolleyes:

No. They can't easily refinance because... 1) They have to pay break fees. Many of these borrowers are sub-prime and need all their spare cash for booze and weed. Where will they find the money for the break fee? What's in it for the banks if they let all their fixed borrowers refinance at...

Nope. He is right on the mark. If you're fixed at 8%, and you can just barely cover the repayments, and then you lose your overtime, or take a paycut or your partner loses her job, or meet with an unexpected medical expense... then you're in trouble. You might have to sell your house. You might...

Exactly! (yes, this was all just probably some elaborate time wasting exercise to entertain FHB's D&G underlings)

He didn't say anything about 'new borrowers'. He said 'Unlike the US, where most mortgages are fixed, three-quarters of Australian mortgages are variable, which means home owners are benefiting as interest rates fall.' Home owners are not new borrowers. They are existing borrowers. In the USA...

Brooks: Unlike the US, where most mortgages are fixed, three-quarters of Australian mortgages are variable, which means home owners are benefiting as interest rates fall. FHB: Strange that they bring up the fixed rates argument, US interest rates have been far lower than ours over the past few...

Hmmm... if you feel that way about it, you could always just accept that I'm right. :D

Makes sense to me. Interest rates influence homeowners decisions to become buyers or seller. I am a homeowner. Rates are low. I don't need to sell. I can buy more. If rates were high, perhaps I couldn't buy more. I might need to sell. If my existing loans were fixed, then perhaps I don't need...

Because they fixed too high thinking rates would keep going up, and they figured they could just refinance with their increased equity if they couldn't afford it. Now perhaps they don't have the expected increased equity, or the wife falls pregnant and has to stop work, or they both have their...

FHB, stop quoting HG. Surely you must already know the answer to this. It has been explained to you and the gloomers so many times. Yet HG and the doom squad declare this on your forum almost every day - i.e. 'rates fell in the USA and look what happened there, we're all doomed!' :rolleyes: 1)...