Looks like it will take until 2010...

Today I was in the city and I had nothing to do. So I decided to do a little survey. I wanted to find out how much I can borrow ?

A few stories here:

a) From what I understand, Westpac has a home finance manager in every branch. I went to 4 branches and their home finance specialists were all booked for the day and their schedules were packed. 

b) While I was talking to the banktellers to see if I could make an appointment, two of them told me that the housing market is going up (low interest rate and prices have fallen).

c) One of the chatty tellers told me that his bank (ANZ) has been tightening the amount it is willing to lend. In my case, ANZ would only lend me a sum based on my base salary. 

Just like the stock market, it is often people with different views that make the market. Put it another way, if enough people believe that pigs can fly, pigs can really fly for the duration of the "collective illusion". I can't help but wonder if this will end up being a protracted mess now. For a start, banks are still lending and folks are looking to borrow. 

The only good news is my peers in the finance industry can now borrow only what their base income afford them.

If one wants to time the market perfectly, suspect the catalyst is if banks start demanding bigger deposits.