Cooking The Books

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's what you should expect from the housing market, and how to adapt to it. Hosted by Frances Cook.Your house may be your castle, but it's also the biggest investment many of us will make, and it comes with the commitment of mortgage debt. So as we try to ride out the severe shockwaves from Covid-19, you won't be surprised to learn the current situation is also a gamechanger for housing. For one thing, unemployment is going up, and every time that happens house prices tend to go down.With tourism stopped, AirBnB is a nonstarter. Many former hosts are either switching to go into the long-term rental market, or opting out entirely and putting the property up for sale. Either of those would be a big force for change on their own, but now we have that and many other issues forcing change all at the same time.So let's rip the bandaid off and start with the bad news, although I promise there is some good n