The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for August 2017 show the value of Australian home lending rose to the highest level on record during August, up by 2.1 per cent to A$33.9 billion in seasonally adjusted terms. "The proportion of first home buyers continues to increase strongly with some Generation Y and millennials gaining access to the Australian housing market for the first time," commented Ryan Felsman, senior economist at CommSec, citing State government based first home buyer incentives as a key motivator for the increase in total housing loans.  "Loans to investors continued to be strong, despite higher lending rates from the major banks and a tightening in lending conditions. The Reserve Bank and Australia's banking regulator APRA will no doubt be monitoring this development. This could potentially be a theme in [today's] semi-annual Reserve Bank Financial Stability Review," he added. Credit and debit card lending statistics were published by the Reserve Bank of Australia, and showed the average credit card balance fell by $0.34 to $3,069.10 in August. This was the lowest reading since December 2007, according to CommSec's analysis. In smoothed terms (12 month average) the average balance was down by 0.1 per cent on a year ago. Among the credit cards that attracted interest charges, the average outstanding balance rose by $0.87 in August to $1,882.40, although, overall, average balances that were accruing interest charges fell by 3.5 per cent in comparison with the level a year ago (down just 1.9 per cent in smoothed terms) The average credit card limit rose by $6.96 to $9,102.90 in August, to be up 0.4 per cent over the year, while usage of these limits stood at just 33.7 per cent in August - around the lowest level in almost 19 years, said CommSec.