steveyp

This hit the headlines today and it certainly had an effect on exchange rates today oz dollar lost quite a bit of ground...I would guess Australian interest rates won't be going up any time soon.

Is it bad reporting or is there any truth in it?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...%5E601,00.html

sunshine23

I spoke to my brother yesterday who lives on the Gold Coast and he says house prices are on the increase up there.

ABCDiamond

Property on the water front seems to be holding its prices and still rising.

Properties in less desirable areas, that went up by a large %, seem to have dipped.

Talk about prices dropping is difficult to really comprehend, unless you can compare specifics. For example I have a property in Sydney that we were going to sell last year, and the agent said it was worth $485k. After marketing it we were told the property market had changed and it is now worth $435k. (it gets $410 a week rent though)
The question is - Did it really drop, or was it never really that value.
It cost $275k in Dec 2001. Still an average 16.5% rise over the last 3 years.
Athough in latest terms it has suffered a 10% price drop.

You can compare average/median property prices by suburb at:
http://www.homepriceguide.com.au/snapshot/ enter suburb and then click prices, then search.

surfdude

We arrived in Brisbane's Bayside in April. Property we were interested in was $650k upwards. Now similar properties are on the market for £530k+ and are not selling. Land was £320k+ now £240k+negotiable ! Make of it what you will ! Its handy for us and we are pleased we waited, we have just bought a 710sqm block of land with bayviews at a very reasonable price and are building with Clarendon Homes. Despite the potential bargain, couldn't find one to suit and didn't want to wait any longer !

Wol

I think one of the reasons for the excessive prices here is the almost universal way that housing is considered an investment first and foremost.

Every bookshop has dozens of books and periodicals obsessing about making your fortune through real estate. Every other person (or so it seems ) is a realtor.

From the outside looking in it looks very unhealthy. Low interest rates plus this "double your money overnight" means that millions of quite ordinary people are psycologically locked in to leverages that are not sustainable long term. IMO the only thing that's keeping the whole thing afloat is the increasing population through immigration (plus the aforementioned low rates).

Just got in from an auction: we were interested in one property. Five of the seven properties were withdrawn before the auction, and neither of the remaining two reached their stated reserve and were passed in. Even then, the one that I was interested in was passed in at over $300,000 more than what I considered a good price, bearing in mind the amount of work required.

Vendor's expectations are still high, but are being tempered by experience!