The Mortgage Stress Default Disconnect

According to the AFR, Australia’s red-hot jobs market is preventing the country’s most indebted borrowers from falling behind on their home loan, as internal Reserve Bank research reveals nearly one in five borrowers may be in mortgage stress. While unemployment nationally was 3.7 per cent in August, unemployment among homeowners was likely “almost non-existent”. But markets ascribe a three-in-five chance the RBA board will deliver one more rate rise by the end of the year, amid concerns about persistently high inflation in the services sector and a stubbornly strong jobs market. Strong employment growth and nominal wage increases have insulated […]