To many this doesn’t sound like much but on a sale price of $300,000.00 first home buyers will have to pay an extra $10,000.00 approx. Taking into account many banks wanting 20% deposit  to avoid lenders mortgage insurance, this will force first home buyers in Armidale to come up with in some cases $70,000.00. As you can imagine this is a huge amount of money and on the average income in Armidale it is going to be an uphill battle.

The flip side to this is that many investors will now enter the market place believing that prices should be cheaper….Many investors for the past 11yrs have felt the first home buyers grants have inflated prices.

I also believe regional areas will see an influx of buyers relocating, the above case study of $300,000.00 is vastly different to say the average Sydney sale price of $650,000.00, so a first home buyer in Sydney will be looking at producing $150,000.00plus.

At least the $7,000.00 grant for first home buyers will pay for a large chunk of the stamp duty in Armidale.

Until next week

The latest rate cut is believed to be one of the hardest decisions that the Reserve Bank has had to make in recent times, and it largely comes down to the uncertainty surrounding the global economic environment and the expanding debt crisis in Europe. The Reserve Bank also needed to make sure that Australia was covered for the next 2 months, as their next meeting won’t be held until February 7 next year.

While the global economic outlook might look dim though, the interest rate cut comes as great news for the property market and other Australian industries.

With most banks following suit and passing interest rate savings on to the consumer, the average mortgage holder with a $300,000, 25-year mortgage, can expect to save about $47 a month. Considering that a lot of homeowners are still enjoying the savings they received last month, the extra money in the bank will surely come in handy for Christmas, which is good news for retailers and local businesses too.

Though if you want to pay off your mortgage faster then it’s a good idea to continue paying the interest rate level that you were a couple of months ago, so you can watch your loan shrink faster and inevitably pay less interest in the long run.

Overall, for homeowners, homebuyers and sellers, the Reserve Bank’s decision to lower the cash interest rate to 4.25% is a very positive one and will surely have a positive flow on effect for the Armidale real estate market. 

City to Soil Kits will be delivered to all urban residents in Armidale soon, and it would be great if the majority of the community utilises the kits as they have shown so far that they are a great way to help reduce our environmental footprint.

If rural residents would like to take part in the project too, then they can if they already have a green waste collection service, they simply need to contact the Armidale Dumaresq Council.

For those who are interested, the City to Soil kit contains a “specially designed aerated kitchen tidy bin, a year’s supply of breathable compostable bags (roll of 150 BioBags), instruction leaflet, information letter, and City to Soil sticker.”

The City to Soil kits are designed to collect food scraps directly from the kitchen and once the specially designed BioBags are full they can then be placed in the green waste bins where they can then be recycled and put back into our soil.

Congratulations to those who have helped make the City to Soil initiative a success and for local residents who would like to find out more about it, you can visit www.armidalecitytosoil.blogspot.com or get in touch with the Armidale Dumaresq Council.

There are plenty of great homes out there that remain unsold because they aren’t set at the right price. While as a real estate agent we will do everything we can to help our sellers achieve a great price, if the price is set too high then buyers simply won’t be interested.

So if you notice that you aren’t getting many offers or that people aren’t turning up to your property inspections then it may be time to review your asking price with your real estate agent.

It’s important to remember that most buyers out there are very price conscious and they will lose interest in a home if they can purchase a similar property for less. At the same time though you don’t want to set a property’s price too low as this could cause buyers to think there is something wrong with your property.

Recent sales for similar properties in your area can normally give you a fairly good indication of what price you can expect to receive. If you have any concerns at all regarding the sale of your property though, remember to talk to your Professionals real estate agent and they will be able to offer you the best advice to help you achieve the best price possible for your home. 

By declaring our region as a Natural Disaster Area though, the local councils have the opportunity to claim for emergency and restoration funding to help repair all of the damage that the rainfall has caused.

Emergency repairs have already started in the region, and many locals would have already noticed road disruptions, but further repairs and restorations are likely to continue for several weeks. If locals do notice any damage to roads in the Armidale region, then they are encouraged to report them to the Armidale Dumaresq Council, so that they can be repaired.

While roads are still being repaired in the region, locals are also encouraged to drive safely and plan road journeys ahead in case of road closures. You can check for road closures by visiting www.livetraffic.com or calling 132-701.

While it would have been better if there wasn’t any damage on our roads to begin with, it’s good to at least hear that we will be getting funding help for the repairs, and hopefully our roads are all back to normal soon enough.