Just like many of my fellow Millenials, the idea of trying to one day own property has always been an abstract thought. A daydream if you will, that I occasionally imagine and then firmly package into the ‘not realistic’ box. Not because I’m not a good saver, but because housing affordability is something of a historic concept. Although, it may be time to dust of the daydreams.
Early last year the experts that be were predicting 2018 would see up to a 10% drop in housing prices, which we didn’t QUITE make, but we did see the steepest drop in the market since the Global Financial Crisis with an average decrease of 4.8% across the country last year.
“This is the worst fall we’ve seen since the GFC, which was a short and sharp correction, down about 5% from peak to trough,” CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless told the ABC.
While this is probably not great news for people currently lucky enough to own a place, there’s no denying that housing affordability has been something of a plague for younger generations, and nowhere more than right here in pretty Sydney where even renting is ridic. So maybe it’s only fair?
The drop was mainly driven by an 8.9% decrease in Sydney and a 7% decrease in Melbourne, although over an overall Perth and Darwin have experienced the largest drops from their peak prices of 15.6% and 24.5% respectively.
Since Sydney’s peak in July 2017, it’s dropped a total of 11.1%, bringing the median house value to what is still a whopping $808 494, and Melbourne has seen a total decrease of only 7.2% since its peak in August 2016 bringing its average price to $645 123.
So yep, they’re still easily the two most expensive cities to live in, seeing as Canberra at number three comes in at $601 275 and Brisbane makes number four the MUCH lower median price of $493 568.
