An interest rate pause is not enough to stop Samantha from having to leave her home
While interest rate hikes have taken a well-needed pause, inflation and cost of living pressures are still causing Australian homeowners grief.
After 10 straight interest rate hikes, the Reserve Bank said it would leave the cash rate steady for the first time in almost a year. However for some, it's not enough.
Homeowner Samantha Gould was forced to make a change to her living situation, as her fixed-rate, 1.89 per cent home loan is rolling over to a variable rate in July.
READ MORE: RBA pauses on relentless rate hikes
Homeowner Samantha Gould was forced to make a change to her living situation ahead of her two-year fixed 1.89 per cent home loan ending in July. Nine
"I will be moving out of my apartment in July pretty much on time for when my rate comes off fixed and I'll be renting out the whole apartment to tenants and then moving in with my partner," she said.
Facing a rate nearly three times higher than her current one, Gould felt she wouldn't be able to afford her repayments once the new rate of 3.6 per cent kicks in.
She isn't the only one making changes, with the value of home loans that borrowers across Australia are refinancing at record highs, reaching nearly $20 billion according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data.
READ MORE: What is the fixed rate mortgage cliff, and how is it going to impact the Australian economy?
Experts say there are still plenty of options for property owners, with lots of competition in the market.
"What we're looking at now is that the average rate is just touched over that six per cent mark but you can still pick up home loans under that five per cent mark," Canstar's Effie Zahos said.
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Gould is one of many Aussies whose mortgage is about to roll off from a fixed to a variable rate. Nine
Westpac's chief economist, Bill Evens, says there probably won't be too many more rate hikes for homeowners like Gould.
"Only one (more increase), I think it will be May, and then I think there will be no case for rate hikes after that," he said.
"Inflation will be coming down, the Australian economy will be stagnating, wages growth will be starting to ease and the unemployment rate will be starting to turn."
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