The ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence survey has ended February in the gutter, with the index down another 0.4 points to 80.0.
It was the third consecutive week with confidence among the worst ten results since the COVID outbreak in Australia:
Commenting on the result, ANZ Senior Economist, Adelaide Timbrell, noted that confidence among mortgage holders has collapsed.
“Among those paying off their mortgage confidence dropped sharply (-4.4pts), to its lowest level since early April 2020 and to 11pts below the average for all housing cohorts”, Timbrell noted.
“This is the third consecutive week with confidence among the worst ten results since the COVID outbreak in Australia”.
“Confidence about current and future economic conditions are at their lowest level since November 2022, while current financial conditions was at its worst level since December 2022. Future financial conditions rose 0.9pts in the week”.
The collapse in confidence among mortgage holders makes sense in light of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) aggressive monetary tightening, which has seen the official cash rate and variable mortgage rates soar 3.25% in only 10 calendar months:
In turn, variable mortgage repayments have soared by 45%, adding around $1,000 per month in repayments on a $500,000 mortgage:
Mortgage holders also expect the RBA to hike rates further in the months ahead, which will add to their pain.
Nearly 900,000 mortgage holders will also this year switch from cheap pandemic fixed rate mortgages to variable rates that are more than double their current level.
Now wonder Aussie mortgage holders are stressed and depressed.
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