Mortgage brokers are coming back into favour once more, with new data showing that borrowers are moving away from the major banks again and are successfully managing their 'tailor-made' mortgages.

After the international scare over sub-prime mortgages early this year made Australian borrowers wary of mortgage brokers, the number of owner-occupied dwellings financed by non-banks dropped by 17.6 per cent in May, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Australia will return to strong economic growth in the medium term, once the current episode of 'overdone pessimism' has receded, industry analyst and economic forecaster BIS Shrapnel predicted this week.

A new report by BIS Shrapnel shows that this growth will be driven in part by lower interest rates over the next year, although inflationary pressures are likely to prevent interest rates from falling back to the low levels seen earlier this decade.

Many people, especially those purchasing a property for the first time, ask "is a final inspection of the property by the buyer before settlement really necessary?"

Regardless of time or other constraints, there are many reasons why a buyer should make a concerted effort to complete one.

There are still far too few skilled tradespeople despite the drop in building activity around the country, according to the latest HIA-Austral Bricks Trades Report.

What's more, the situation is not going to improve without some major changes Australia-wide being put in place in the vocational education and training (VET) system to avoid a future skills crunch.

Monday will be the first day of Spring; and as the weather becomes warmer, your thoughts may turn to doing some gardening and then - inevitably - to the benefits of having a water tank installed.

Whether you're renting or are short on money or space, you can still prepare your home for potential water-shortages by installing the handy Minitank.  Available at hardware stores, the small and lightweight tanks come in different shapes and designs, will easily attach to downpipes and can store up to 200 litres of precious rainwater.

While we can't all have the luxury of in-house washers and dryers, the local laundromat just isn't for everyone. Particularly, it seems, for one man in the United States whom police are seeking after he reportedly broke into a house with the intent of cleaning his clothes.

A Kansas woman returned home recently to find her laundry room a mess and then proceeded to find a stranger upstairs wearing just his boxer shorts. The man grabbed the woman's handbag and ran away, leaving his jeans and belt still in her washing machine. Police say it appears he simply needed to wash his clothes.