English expressions in a piece of news from SMH

Cited from SMH for English study.

For example, you may find many expressions or words for almost the same meaning of ‘drop’ (in bold): edge down, sink, slide, drop, fall, decline,  plummet, sag, slump

Home loans extend drop on weak demand

Chris Zappone

April 6, 2011 - 11:40AM

Home loans dropped for a second consecutive month in February with New South Wales posting its biggest monthly decline in 14 years.

The number of home loans fell 5.6 per cent in February, following a revised 6.3 per cent fall in January, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Economists polled by Bloomberg tipped a 2 per cent fall.

Home loans in New South Wales plummeted 10.1 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms, the most since February 1997, the ABS reported.

"Home loan demand clearly struggled amid intense flooding across the eastern states in the early part of 2011, keeping homebuyers, investors and builders on the sidelines," said Moody's Economy.com analyst Matthew Circosta. "Prior to January, home loan demand had been recovering on the back of falling unemployment and rising incomes, even amid higher borrowing costs."

Demand for home loans has sagged in 2011, after flooding in Queensland and parts of Victoria interrupted the sales cycle in those markets. Also, auction clearance rates have slumped to about 60 per cent in recent weeks in some capitals - well down from the 80 per cent levels seen a year ago - as high prices, rising interest rates and economic uncertainty keep buyers on the sidelines.

Among the other states, Victoria registered a 4.6 per cent drop in new home loans, while in Queensland, they edged down 0.5 per cent.

In Western Australia the number of home loans slid 2.1 per cent, while in South Australia, home loans sank 5 per cent.

Tasmania experienced a 13.7 per cent drop while in the Northern Territory they sank 11.4 per cent. In the ACT, loans fell 4.5 per cent, the ABS said.

Mortgage broker Australian Finance Group, which claims it processes about 10 per cent of the national home loan market, said today it had $2.5 billion in home loans in March on its books, up 22 per cent on February, but 9 per cent lower than a year earlier.

Separately, the March quarter National Australia Bank residential property survey showed that the industry tipped house prices to grow only 0.6 per cent over the next 12 months.