HOUSING FINANCE


HOUSING FINANCE COMMITMENTS

In trend terms, the total value of housing finance commitments (owner occupation) in South Australia in January 2009 was $1,017m, an increase of 4.1% from $977m in December 2008. Nationally, the value of housing finance commitments for owner occupation grew by 2.5% from $13,283m in December 2008 to $13,614m in January 2009.

In January 2009, the average home loan size for owner occupied dwellings in South Australia was $211,300, which was significantly lower than the average home loan size for Australia ($251,100).

In January 2009, the average loan size for first home buyers in South Australia was $233,800, which was 14.0% higher than the average loan size for non-first home buyers ($205,100). Since April 2008, the average loan size for first home buyers has increased 18.7% while the average loan size for non-first home buyers has increased 5.4%. The non-first home buyers category of loans includes loans for purchasing housing and the refinancing of existing loans. The latter type are smaller in size and refer to refinancing with a different lender, but with the security unchanged. The increasing divergence between the average loan sizes for first home buyers and non-first home buyers seen after April 2008 can in part be attributed to the increasing contribution of smaller refinancing loans to the non-first home buyers' category.

For information on the house price index, please refer to the ' Price Indexes' topic.