ozzieeagle

House prices finally going off the boil in Melbourne. A drop in Melbourne was reported for the last quarter. Looks like the interest rate rises are working.

http://maribyrnong-leader.whereilive...-house-prices/

harrip

Bit conflicting - "Despite the 2 per cent fall, it was the strongest March quarter for seven years."

ozzieeagle

Lower end private sales dropping, Auctions market holding strong. However median has dropped.

In otherwords bottom end buyers are falling off because of cost. Hopefully it's enough of a slowdown to stop a real slump.

Pomster

House prices need to start coming down as they are so unaffordable for most buyers.
Each auction we follow, the property is selling for about 25pct more than EPR.
So I think buyers are factoring in the low interest rates and not thinking about the increases which will continue...

IndieG

From the same article:

Some of increases in the 12 months to March 2010 were even more dramatic, with Kew shooting up a staggering 83.4 per cent from $875,000 to $1,605,008.[/I]

If that is not a bubble then I don't know what is

ABCDiamond

With a rate like that, if it is not a spike caused by specific sales then it would be a Bubble, but with the entire area reporting the median house price dropping from $535,000 to $524,500, then it isn't a bubble as such for the whole area.

Those prices in Kew are very interesting when compared to the average mortgage payment in the area (quoted by the same site as the median prices)

$1,605,008 Median House Price
$2,000 Monthly Loan Repayment
http://www.realestateview.com.au/por...#median-prices

My guess is that very few of those $1.6M properties are being bought on mortgages.

coolshadows

We'll that can only be Chinese investment or UK Migrants.

fish.01

Did you forget to put a smiley on that?

chilliman

well hopefully this is the end of the "perfect storm" I have run into;

1. Crazy house prices
2. Sterling on the floor

mindblower

:[/QUOTE]

sustained media hype and brainwashing keeps prices up too.

itigo

Down here in Geelong/Surf Coast, prices seem to be on the rise. I looked round a house to rent the other week with another British couple whose work was actually in Melbourne. I think more people will start moving down here as it's only an hour commute and cheaper than many Melbourne suburbs. We need the prices to drop a bit before we can even entertain buying.

IndieG

With the pound falling, UK migrants buy million dollar properties mostly in cash?

coolshadows

Of course, a good number are required to keep the Australian property market up.

Remember everytime the £ falls, means their salaries are bigger over here.

IndieG

This tiny 2 bed room apartment, renting for $330 pw was sold yesterday for $523,000. I've seen the apartment and it is in dire need of an overhaul.

So you add stamp duty, rates, maintenance charges, agency fees for renting - the return is a little under 3%. Just what was this buyer thinking??

Deutschmaster

I've been tracking prices in the SE of Melbourne, Springvale, Dandie, Noble Park etc.

I've noticed that the volume of properties in my price range, cheap as poss, seems to have fallen off.

I suppose what this will do is increase the house price mean because there are fewer properties at the lower end to skew the mean down. Therefore agents can bang on about how the mean has increased, strong market etc.