BUNBURY has the 20th worst postcode for missed mortgage payments in Western Australia and sits just below the national average.
Meanwhile, there are about 2,500 homes up for sale with some being sold for about $100,000 less than the price owners paid for them in the past two years.
Of all mortgages that share the postcode of 6230, there are 1.7 per cent who are more than 30 days in arrears wiht lenders.
WA remains the best performing state for making repayments on time.
But it experienced the most rapid decline in the past six months.
The Fitch Report said mortgage stress has become too high in a State where property prices have fallen.Its authors said borrowers are trapped and unable to sell their property to repay loans.The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has predicted failed mortgages would only increase in Bunbury, most likely in middle income households, but the worst impact was not being felt.
“What we’re seeing is less forced mortgage sales than what we’d expect because people are getting them on the market and selling them beforehand,” REIWA Bunbury chairwoman Roslyn Ierace said.
Ms Ierace said she saw a house sold for almost $90,000 less than the price the owners had bought it for and valued another for close to $100,000 below what it cost to build.She said the Bunbury property market had an almost record number of listings but it was beginning to strengthen after months of falling prices.
“The biggest thing is that we’ve hit rock bottom with our prices. Bunbury’s sales in the past few months have been the best in the past two years,” she said.
A survey of almost one million Australian mortgages by Fitch Ratings found 1.88 per cent were at least 30 days in arrears, up from 1.56 per cent six months earlier.
Only postcodes which have more that $100 million worth of mortgages were included in the report.
