BRW --- Page: 13 : 18 January 2007 Original article by Jason Baker
ABIX Summary
It is often claimed that higher interest rates could place many middle-income households at risk and jeopardise the economy. Some 70 per cent of Australians live in their own home, and roughly 2.3 million households have a mortgage. The 0.75 per cent rise in interest mortgages in the last year has added another $A100-to-$A150 in monthly repayments of the average mortgage of between $A200,000 to $A300,000. In the last five years, annual average wage growth has reached 4.7 per cent. Only people with fairly recent mortgages, whose wages have not yet grown by much, would be greatly affected by higher interest rates.
