Hope and help for first home buyers. Things are looking up for would-be first home buyers, left out in the cold in the recent house price boom. The numbers are finally getting better, and government assistance is increasing.
Q&As: 2 Q&As on whether homeowners should sell and be renters for a while, to cash in on falling house prices?; Should 62-year-old buy a rental property or join KiwiSaver?
Q&As: Monkey story a great yarn, but it’s not about the share market; Reader’s concerns about banks’ exposure to foreign exchange risk are unfounded; 61-year-old should think hard before selling her house and enjoying some of the proceeds; Man about to retire can still get plenty from KiwiSaver.
Choices for those hit by mortgage rate rises. The offers are already being made to people facing big mortgage interest rises. “If your lender won’t renegotiate, we’ve got deals that will lower your payments,” they say. Are these deals any good?
Q&As: Calculator tells reader to stop saving and live it up a bit; Reader who finds KiwiSaver nauseating has a scary list of things that could go wrong…; …But another one applauds KiwiSaver, while sitting on the home ownership sidelines.
How same is the same housing market? A reader has taken issue with a comment in my last column that “the vast majority of current homeowners… could just sit out a plunge in house prices, or else sell and buy in the same market and suffer no loss.”
Q&As: Should a couple with 3 children move to a bigger house in town or take a bet on a coastal property?; Are KiwiSaver bond funds as conservative as they seem?
Q&As: Student allowance rip-off is not OK; Advice for house-less Gen Xers: Buy a rental property in the provinces; Rental property buyers feel like the scourge of society; The cliché king has his say; Cardboard boxes and contentment.
Q&As: Four readers give diverse views on whether baby boomers or Generation Xers got a better deal on tertiary education, student loans, and affordability of houses.
Q&As: Three readers defend baby boomers and suggest how today’s young could afford to buy homes; A Generation Xer speaks up for her generation; A reader worries that apartments may lose value.