From Craig James on today’s Westpac Consumer Sentiment:
Aussies have got the message. Consumers believe that now is not the best time to be putting extra money into real estate. Since 1973 consumers have been surveyed on what they believe is the wisest place to put new savings. In the latest quarter, the share of consumers favouring real estate fell from 14.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent – the smallest reading in 44 years. Investors still reckon the wisest place to put extra savings is in the bank (29 per cent of respondents), ahead of paying down debt (25.7 per cent). The preference to pay down debt is the highest in five years and just short of the highest reading on record.
And here we are with all of our savings tied up in it. If only regulators and government had gotten the message.
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
