Rising Mortgage Rates Take Toll on Young Australians, but First-Time Buyers Remain Optimistic
Despite falling home costs due to higher interest rates, youthful Australians are being shut out of the market. According to the latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of people purchasing their first house in January fell by 8.1%, reaching its lowest since February 2017. Six years ago, in that very same month, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority declared an assault on interest-only and investment loans, which triggered a decline in the housing market. In January 2021, two months after the Reserve Bank of Australia reduced interest rates to a record low of 0.1 percent, there was