The housing market in Australia is making a very controlled exit from the strong growth conditions of 2009/10 and now the correction phase of the cycle is coming.
Australia’s housing market remained flat with prices falling 0.6 per cent nationally, according to the latest Australian Property Monitors’ March quarter house price index.
Sydney prices fell marginally, by 0.4 per cent, Melbourne flatlined and Canberra was the only capital city where median house values actually rose in the quarter by a slim 0.2 per cent. Other capital cities experienced larger price slumps: Hobart fell 2.3 per cent, Brisbane 2 per cent, Darwin 1.6 per cent, Perth 1.1 per cent and Adelaide 0.6 per cent.
Melbourne’s median house price in the 2011 March quarter was at $563,397 and it is in line with the data from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria which show the city’s median house price was $565,000.
Sydney’s median house price in the 2011 March quarter was at $643,713.
The median price for units also fell in the March quarter by 1.2 per cent nationally to $406,279.
The fall in house prices follows near-record levels of housing stock coming on the market, the period homes are advertised for sale has also lengthened considerably.
All the signs seem to support that the Australia housing market correction is happening but the housing market crash prediction seems not going to happen as Reserve Bank of Australia chief Glenn Stevens said he was not “terribly troubled” about the level of house prices in Australia as house price to income ratios were “not exceptional by global standards.”