Cooking The Books

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's the good change for first home buyers, but also a word of caution. Hosted by Frances Cook.After years of bad news for first home buyers, it seems that things are finally starting to improve.Research released by ANZ shows an increasing number of houses are being sold to first home buyers, making up 22 percent of sales across New Zealand during the three months to December 2017.That's a jump up from 17 percent three years ago. ANZ is putting it down to an easing of the loan-to-value restrictions, which pushed banks to demand a higher deposit from those who wanted a mortgage.But there's a note of caution in this news, and it's a really important one.I certainly think buying your own home and paying down the mortgage is an important step for your future. It's something I prioritised for myself.But many of these first home sales are in west or south Auckland, where the market is still running hot. The