Hume home owners are struggling to make their mortgage repayments, a global ratings agency has found.
The latest Fitch Ratings Mortgage Delinquency Report reported Hume as the worst-performing region in Australia by the dollar value of missed payments and the number of delinquent mortgages.
However, the report’s author, James Zanesi, said the area had witnessed some improvement in the past six months, with delinquencies down 1.26 per cent since peaking in March last year.
“Normally, these regions in outer-ring suburbs show high levels of arrears but, because of low interest rates, this area is picking up,” Mr Zanesi said.
Over the six months to the end of last September, mortgage performance in most regions of Australia improved or remained stable.
However, Melbourne’s north-western suburbs bucked trends and overtook Sydney’s western suburbs as the worst- performing regions in the country as of September 2014.
The report predicted continuing poor performance in these areas due to socio-economic variables, an increase in unemployment and only a slight appreciation in house prices.
Mr Zanesi said Hume was characterised by householders who commute to work and are typically low-income earners.
“They can’t afford to buy closer to the city and are very sensitive to interest rate movement,” he said.
