I worry that the banks are trying to unleash those animal spirits in the housing markets again.

The financial market now expects the Reserve Bank will not increase the OCR from 3 to 3.25 per cent until June next year.

The housing market has started to simmer again.

Taxpayers could be paying as much as $178 million to bail out a failed finance company owned by one of NZ's wealthiest families.

Kiwibank has cut its 2 year fixed mortgage rate to 6.59pc, to try and spice up housing demand.

A real estate agent who bought a $1.27 million home with a complete stranger was a victim of an elaborate property scam and has been left with a $600,000 debt.

A former Auckland Barfoot & Thompson real estate agent has been found guilty of mortgage fraud totalling $13 million.

Homes are at their most affordable in six years - apart from in Auckland, where the average weekly mortgage is more than $570 a week.

New Kiwibank head Paul Brock is urging potential first home buyers not to be spooked and to go out and buy, so long as they can afford to.

After the Subprime Mortgage Mess, the US Foreclosure Fiasco.

You might be surprised how often insurance companies call their customers liars, fraudsters or criminals, and the flimsy basis on which they sometimes do so.

The "GST-income tax switch" will from tomorrow leave the vast majority of income earners with at least a few more dollars in their pockets each week.