Ballarat mortgage owners will soon experience the first increase in interest rates since 2010.
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On Tuesday afternoon the Reserve Bank of Australia announced the reserve cash rate would rise from 0.1 per cent to 0.35 per cent.
For a $400,000 Ballarat mortgage that could mean an extra $30 a month in repayments.
"It can feel like it is quite a stressful moment," Smartline Personal Mortgage Agency owner Kerry McKenzie said.
"People can feel quite stressed but there are things you can do."
The announcement will be sure to have many homeowners asking themselves one question: 'Is it better to have a fixed or variable loan rate?'
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Ms McKenzie said it really varied from situation to situation and in Ballarat she had seen a mix of both.
"It really depends on your budget, if you have a fixed rate you would have budgeted to spend a certain amount each month," she said.
"It is not black and white, some people love the fixed system whereas others can go with the market at the time."
The increase in the interest rates is a Reserve Bank tool to manage inflation. If people have less money to spend on other non-essential items there will be less spending, leading to less demand and less inflation.
For the average resident, $30 may be a cost they can work into their cash flow.
It may also have been considered when the Reserve Bank approved the mortgage but for residents on lower incomes it could have devastating impacts.
According to Everybody's Home Stress Map there are 67,148 households in the federal electorate of Ballarat, with 66.3 per cent experiencing mortgage stress.
Bendigo, for comparison, has 65,651 households, with 45.8 per cent experiencing mortgage stress.
Anglicare Victoria Ballarat community development manager Kate Schnerring said leaders were already seeing an increased demand as cost of living had risen. "We have people who previously were able to cover their bills including paying off their house. There are people who own their own homes who are having to come to use our services because rates are getting higher."
These sentiments are echoed by other welfare organisations.
"The rate rise will be another kick in the teeth for Australians living in poverty, who are already stretching every dollar to its limit," St Vincent de Paul Society National president Claire Victory said.
"The surging cost-of-living, shortage of affordable housing, increasingly insecure work and stagnant wages are making it all-but impossible for a growing number of Australians to survive.
"The interest rate hike will add to these pressures and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people in the community."
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