Australia’s Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens was reported to have told a Senate Committee that the recession was over and tipped of a rise in interest rates.

Is the recession really over?

Although job ads in Australia are reported to have increased recently, still unemployment in the US increased again to 9.8 percent in September with 263,000 jobs reportedly lost. Unemployment in EU also increased in August to 9.1 percent.

Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see how the banks will respond to the RBA assessment. It was not very long time ago when the major banks raised rates on borrowings.

Updated 6 Oct 2009, 5:00pm - The RBA lifted interest rates by 0.25 percentage points which pushed the cash rate to 3.25%. If the commercial banks do not absorb the rate increase, this will add about $45 to monthly repayment on a $300,000 mortgage.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that many real estate agents in Australia are unaware of the requirements of the Spam Act (Spam Act 2003) and the DNCR Act (Do Not Call Register Act 2006).

In order to rectify this lack of awareness, the ACMA has stepped up an education campaign which was started in November last year to raise the awareness of real estate agents of the Acts.

According to the ACMA, a special web page within the DNCR website has been created which features real estate industry-specific information including Power Point presentation about the DNCR Act and the Spam Act.

The additional education campaign, according to the ACMA, is “in response to the increasing number of consumer complaints about telephone, SMS, and email marketing by real estate agents.”

The ACMA anticipates that the web page will assist in reducing complaints it is receiving about the marketing activity of real estate agents.

We ask this question because as I was watching this morning’s news, one finance commentator said that a 0.10% to 0.15% increase in variable loan rate would mean something like $300 – $400 a week.

I find that incredible. The commentator was probably referring to the gross repayment amount and not the resultant increase in home loan repayment. But even that, we still find the assessment not appropriate considering that borrowers have varying levels of mortgages.

It’s good after almost an hour the same program flashed another report that a 0.15% increase would mean approximately $27 per month on a $300,000 mortgage.

That’s more like it.

We hope next time, finance analysts and commentators will double check their calculations before opening their mouth and start scaring the listeners out of their pants.

Many real estate agents have of late realized that to take a step above their competition, they need to develop (and to some, re-develop) their sites to take into account the flexibility of integrating their listing with social bookmarking sites.

Undoubtedly, WordPress is a favorite for the job as it is reputed to be one of the best content management systems around.

It’s relatively easy to learn and easy to customize. Adding content in a WordPress install is a breeze. Search engines just love a WordPress site.

Integration with social media and bookmarks is not an issue at all. In fact, the large community of users, designers and developers of WordPress has practically every conceivable tools to make a WordPress site a powerhouse.

Here are some WordPress sites with “must see” real estate related themes and plugins.

Themes

• Gorilla Themes
• StudioPress
• Real Estate Themes
• iThemes

Plugins

• Great Real Estate
• Featured Content Gallery
• WordTube
• Smart Youtube

Need assistance in developing your real estate website? Give us a call.

The First Home Owners Grant (FHOG) which has given property buyer and sellers a bonanza will soon see a mad rush to meet the deadline.

The FHOG, extended another three month after its original 30 June expiry date following the 2009 Federal Budget, will finish 30 September.

People who enter into contracts on or before 30 September will still be eligible for a grant of $14,000 for an existing dwelling and $21,000 for a new home.

But after 30 September, the more generous scheme will be phased down, and end after December 31.

Between October 1 and December 31, the boost will be halved, meaning first home buyers will receive a total of $10,500 for established homes and $14,000 for new homes.

Don’t forget that the 50% off stamp duty on all newly built homes will apply only until 31 December 2009.

The 50% discount on stamp duty is part of the economic stimulus plan of the New south Wales Government to help all eligible buyers of newly built homes up to $600,000.

The stamp duty discount starts from 1 July 2009 as part of the state government’s Housing Construction Acceleration Plan.

On a $600,000 purchase, the government estimates savings up to $11,245 for first home buyers.

PhilippinePropertiesOnline.com re-opened yesterday sporting a new look. The Philippine properties website is “an easy, do-it-yourself way to buying, selling, renting and promoting Philippine properties” using the popular blogging technology.

Real estate agents, developers, owners, renters, or just anyone interested in buying, selling, renting or investing in Philippine properties can join and post their ads or comments.

To post an ad on PhilippinePropertiesOnline.com, click here.

The Australian Government’s announcement of a First Home Owner Boost is a welcome news.

According to the announcement from the Commonwealth, first home buyers now receive an automatic doubling of the First Home Owners Grant to $14,000. First home buyers building their first home receive an additional $7,000 raising their grant to $21,000.

As with other grants, there are of course certain requirements to meet. Eligible buyers will need to enter into a contract before June 30, 2009 to receive the increased payments. In the case of new property, as long as there is a valid contract to purchase, the home will not have to be completed by that date.

There are no income or assets tests to qualify for the benefits.

Some quarters say this move will drive up prices, but others disagree because of current uncertain economic conditions.

With interest rates and prices falling, now is the time to look into those first home buyers grants.

Our readers may wish to check the First Home website of the government to see if you are eligible.

According to the latest survey of house price indicators, there appears to be mixed trends on global house price movements.

Global Property Guide (www.globalpropertyguide.com) has reported that in most countries in Europe, major real house price falls occurred during the year to end of Q1 2008. Ireland had a fall of 13.2%.

US prices were also reported to have declined during the year to end of Q1, by -4.2% to -18.1% adjusted after inflation.

On the other hand, strong house prices increases were observed in a handful of emerging economies. Ahead of the pack was China (Shanghai), with an enormous 40.5% nominal house price surge during the year to the end of Q1 2008.

Other countries with impressive nominal house price increases year-on-year to end-Q1 2008 were Bulgaria (31.6%), Hong Kong (31.1%), and Singapore (29.8%). Strong house price gains also took place in Cyprus, Australia and Taiwan.

Again, when adjusted for inflation, many of these price rises look much less impressive. The world’s top-performing housing market (after inflation) was not China or Hong Kong or Singapore, but Slovakia, where real house prices rose by 29.3%.