The process of buying a home can seem complicated. There are so many things to consider and sometimes it's hard to know where to start. To help you remember all the details and get the most out of the process, it's a good idea to start with a list.

Write down your 'must haves' so you know what your priorities are. Buying a home is an emotional process and sometimes it's easy to fall in love with a particular house feature or style, forgetting about what you originally decided you needed to suit your lifestyle and budget. Your 'must haves' may include things like number of bedrooms, good natural light, separate play area for the kids and a breezy, open feel.

Next write down your 'wish list'. Your 'wish list' should include extras that would be of great value or use to you, like shaded alfresco dining with good sunlight in winter, granite benchtops, solar hot water or a rainwater tank.

There are many places you can go for information and ideas, including home magazines, websites, display villages and home ideas centres. Talk to friends and learn from their experiences - what do they love about their home, and what would they change? Thinking through what you want first makes it much easier once you start talking to sales people and builders.

Your lists can help you to prioritise what you really need, while staying within your budget. They can also be really useful when you're looking at open homes, talking to a builders and looking at properties on the net

Housing affordability continued to rise in Queensland during the September 2013 quarter. In Brisbane, affordability rose by 1.5
per cent during the quarter. This represents a very substantial 26.6 per cent increase on twelve months earlier. In regional
Queensland, the improvement in affordability was 4.4 per cent on a quarterly basis and was 23.0 per cent higher than a
year earlier. In both markets, September 2013 marks the most affordable quarter in about a decade... This is Taken from The Affordability Report CBA / HIA

MANY Australians hoping to get financially fitter in 2014 and fatten their fortunes will need to tighten their spending and give themselves a budget makeover. Many New Year's resolutions have already been broken but experts say it's not too late to reassess your finances and ensure that the budget sheets are balanced.

Interest rates have remained at historically low levels and are expected to remain so for much of this year which is good news for borrowers, but no good for savers.
But you what you have to do, its so simple and not usually fun. You have to Save more and Spend less. Whether that be through taking your lunch, not eating out as much, car pooling to save petrol expenses. There are lots

With Gavin King meeting the Premier, the talk fest continues without any real action to lower home insurance premiums for Far North Queenslanders.

This premium hike for North Queensland residents is like a Poll Tax on homeowners.

My estimates are that these outrageous insurance premiums are taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the local economy and relocating it in the pockets of the insurance industry. It doesn’t matter if you are a pensioner, disabled or your average battler, everyone gets slugged with these premiums while our southern neighbours pay premiums less than a third of what we pay here.

In a recent comparison between identical properties with Suncorp, who state on its website their insurance is “The must have Queensland Insurance”, a property in Western Sydney was insured for $1,024.00 where the comparable property in Kewarra Beach was a whopping $3,217.00. So much for a bank who looks after Queenslanders. In fact, Suncorp has been making so much money from these higher premiums it even recently made a special dividend to shareholders as its profits were so swollen from premiums gathered from its insurance division.

These high insurance costs are an additional burden to every household in North Queensland and in simple terms it places a tariff on properties in the north. 

In banking terms, insurance premiums are seen as fixed costs to owning real estate and these inflated costs have translated to downward pressure on Queensland property asset values, especially for the strata investor market.

With Gavin King's efforts recently, you would think the State Government would be a little more advanced in its efforts to assist home owners in North Queensland.

At the time of writing, Gavin King's website has no reference at all to this issue which has such a critical effect on North Queensland households, especially low income earners.


Roger Ward is a local finance professional at www.nqhomeloans.com.au and host of www.rogerward.weebly.com. 

Fixed rate mortgages have high exit fees for people who want to exit the loan before the fixed rate period is up. If you're thinking about refinancing a fixed rate loan, ask your Cairns Mortgage Brokers for an indicative payout figure, making sure this includes any break cost.

This payout figure might change if you don't act straight away. Using this number calculate the total cost to you of moving the loan. In a stable rate environment the break costs may not be too high. When rates fall, break costs will go up. If you have any questions about your current home loan, give us a call. 07 4057 9746

Source: Bankheadlines.com.au

 because of historically low interest rates and a growing building industry, new figures show. Credit reporting agency Veda's December quarter report, released today,
showed mortgage demand grew significantly towards the end of last year despite consumers remaining cautious around other types of credit - including credit cards and personal loans.

The report, which tracks credit inquiries made to financial institutions, showed mortgage applications rose by 15.3 per cent in the December quarter compared to the 2012 December quarter. This is a strong sign Australian is on the way to recovery, hopefully we will see the same apply in Cairns

The idea that there is a property bubble may be true for major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne but any of the strong growth recorded in other cities is still to reach Cairns and other smaller cities throughout Australia. The worrying thing is that there is little talk about the two and three level housing market when it comes to media reporting. House prices in Cairns have not recovered strongly since the GFC which is providing a strong lure for many investors. Rents are still relatively high and housing prices have remained low which means Cairns and the surrounding areas are a strong draw card for the investor market. This may be the push needed to increase property prices here in Cairns, Port Douglas, Palm Cove and associated areas.

Core inflation looks to be still subdued despite the reporting on the housing market. The 6 month estimates have however been adjusted up to 2.7% from 2.4% however this is still well within the comfort zone of the RBA’s charter. It’s important to remember that the economy is not just about housing and the potential for further rate cuts would be used to boost consumer demand in other sectors.

Housing approvals in 2013 have improved, however from a low base in the previous year. Not surprisingly, medium and high density approvals lagged behind the standard residential figures reflecting the difficulties in the financing of such projects after the GFC.

2014 is really shaping up as a great year and some economists are still talking about more rate cuts later in the year.

The Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association's Performance of Construction Index fell 4.4 points to 50.8 in December, but remained above the 50-point level that separates expansion from contraction.

The house building sub-sector rose 1.5 points to 63.5.

'This is more evidence that low interest rates are doing their thing,' JP Morgan economist Ben Jarman said.

'The housing market is doing quite well. It's one part of the economy playing the script on what is supposed to happen when rates are this low.'

Mr Jarman said rising house prices were acting as a catalyst to drive people to think about building their own home and also helped property developers to get projects off the ground.

Ai Group public policy director Peter Burn said the figures indicated 2014 would be a better year for the construction industry.

'The continued growth of new orders means that builders - and the manufacturing and service industries that are linked to the commercial and residential construction sectors - can look forward to 2014 with a greater degree of confidence than prevailed only a few months ago,' he said.