[zaph]

Quote

Roger never should have gotten that home loan. He never should have asked for it, but the bank never should have given it to him either.

Six years ago, they wouldn’t. Despite a decent job and a $7000 deposit, Roger couldn’t get a loan for $180,000 the first time he tried to make the jump into the Adelaide housing market. Come back when you’ve got another $10,000 for the deposit, he was told.

But fast-forward a few years and the game had changed. It wasn’t simply that Roger got a better job or saved a larger deposit.

Instead, in some kind of bizarre paradox, the global financial crisis made Roger a better bet in 2009 than he was in 2005.

http://theage.domain...0125-1qgos.html

[Bernard L. Madoff]

zaph, on 27 January 2012 - 03:33 AM, said:

http://theage.domain...0125-1qgos.html

Roger is a smart bugger for taking the money and running.

I'd bet an ounce of the good stuff that all of the following figure are 2009 FHBers...

Quote

Report authors and RP Data researchers Tim Lawless and Cameron Kusher said that almost 5 per cent of homes nationwide were in negative equity.

“4.9 per cent of all Australian homes are currently valued at less than purchase price,” the report said.

“The negative equity figure has risen from 3.7 per cent at the end of the last quarter.”

http://www.news.com....u-1226247640456

Current US negative equity stands around 20% and prices are between 30% and 60% down from peak over 6 years.

[Mr Medved]

5% is non-trivial. That's a lot of households under water. It would be interesting to know the breakdown by area (i.e., top end, favela outer suburbs, CBD apartments).