Home Lending Booms: But What Have They Got To Hide?

The ABS released their monthly lending indicators for September today, and it showed a strong uptick in new mortgage loans, in contrast to poor household spending trends and confidence overall, though as we will see there are questions about this dataset too. Significantly, we also note the ABS is about to terminate its monthly reporting of new loans data, saying the monthly Lending Indicators publication will transition to a quarterly release. My observation is different because the monitoring of new loans for housing is an essential barometer for the economy, without the monthly data it will be easier for lenders […]