Mortgage rates are continuing to rise without any prompting from the Reserve Bank.

Mortgage rates remain volatile as lenders grapple with difficult conditions in financial markets.

Mortgage rates are still all over the place although the trend towards reductions, rather than increases, has grown over the past week...

Mortgage brokers are among the estimated 28,000 financial advisers who will be gearing up for Government regulation next year.

There is not much cheer to be had if you are shopping for a homeloan in the run-up to Christmas 2007. The Good Returns mortgage rate table is sprinkled with red but this is not festive flourish. Rates are rising again and two-year fixes, in particular, are under pressure.

Given that the Reserve Bank held the Official Cash Rate (OCR) at 8.25% following its final rate review of the year last week, it is not surprising that there have been few movements in home loan rates since then.

Weekly Home Loan Report: After a succession of increases in mortgage rates over recent weeks several lenders have now cut two year fixed rates.

Home Loan Report: Mortgage rates are continuing to increase even though wholesale rates fell slightly at the end of last week.

The Good Returns mortgage rate table is awash with red this week as lenders push rates up even though there has been no change in the official cost of borrowing in New Zealand.

Home Loan Report: Mortgage listings are awash with red this week as lenders push rates up even though there has been no change in the official cost of borrowing in New Zealand.

Mortgage brokers face a new round of commission cuts. Westpac is cutting commission from today, while Sovereign, part of the ASB banking group will reduce payments from the beginning of December.

Home loan report: There have been more reductions in mortgage rates than increases over the past week but this does not necessarily mean that rates are on a clear downward path.

Home loan report: The notable trend in the homeloan market over the past week has been the hardening of rates over terms of three and five years.

There have been further cuts to fixed rates over terms of two to five years from some finance companies and non bank lenders over the past week but some one-year rates have increased. The major banks, however, are maintaining identical rates over all terms.

The reductions to be implemented by major banks in upfront commissions vary but were expected to represent a reduction of around 25 to 30 basis points in some cases.

Weekly Home Loan Report: Homeloan rates are continuing to move in the right direction for anyone seeking a mortgage at the moment. But it is still too early to declare that a new mortgage war has broken out.