Last week it was Westpac, just a few minutes ago it was ANZ, now CBA announce a hike
- CBA +0.15% to its variable rate mortgages
So, that just leaves NAB of the final of the big 4 here in Australia. They will announce soon enough too.
I posted on the ANZ hike just a few minutes ago, here
OK, hikes by 0.15% and 0.16% are not large, and most mortgagees will grit their teeth and carry on. The way to think about the impact of thess though is to do so at the margin. This is how an economist (and trader) thinks. there will be some mortgagees that will struggle with the extra repayments, at the margin. Like I said, most, the vast majority will just carry on, but at the margin some will struggle. Some will even find the extra repayment impossible to meet. Some who were looking at buying a house will now finds themselves unable to meet the lending criteria (afford the repayments, in a nutshell).
So, at the margin, this is a negative for the housing market. See me earlier tweet for more on the marginal impact on the economy.
