(RTTNews) - The number of loans for owner occupied housing in Australia jumped a seasonally adjusted 5.1 percent in September compared to the previous month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, coming in at 65,505.

That was higher than analyst expectations for a 3.0 percent increase following the revised 1.9 percent monthly decline in August.

The value of owner-occupied home loans was up a seasonally adjusted 6.7 percent to A$17.593 billion after the revised 2.7 percent fall in the previous month.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the total value of dwelling finance commitments excluding alterations and additions increased 4.8 percent.

The percentage of first home buyer loans was 26.1 percent in September, up from 24.7 percent a month earlier. The percentage of fixed rate loans was 5.6 percent in September, down from 6.3 percent in August.

Investment lending eased 0.1 percent on month to A$6.251 billion after spiking a revised 8.3 percent on month a month earlier.

Also on Monday, the Australia New Zealand Banking Group said that total job advertisements in Australia were down a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent on month in October, coming in at 133,709 ads.

On an annual basis, ads were down 42.3 percent. Total ads were up 4.4 percent in September.

Newspaper job ads were down 1.4 percent on month in October, the data showed, and 33.8 percent on year. Internet job ads fell 1.8 percent and were down 42.8 percent on year.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Forex, Releases.

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