Mortgage debt ratio hits equal all-time high in Australian

Plummeting house prices meant Australians’ mortgage debt continued to grow faster than the value of real estate assets during the March quarter. But Thursday’s data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a fifth consecutive quarter of residential real estate losses, which was the main factor behind a decline in household wealth per person by $1,500 to $404,566. The per capita fall follows a $10,198 drop in the December quarter and a $2,264 fall in the three months to September 2018. The decline in property prices also pushed the ratio of Australians’ mortgage debt to real estate assets from 28.1% to 29.0%, matching the all-time peak reached in July 2013.