RP Data: House prices end March “flat”

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By Leith van Onselen

Please find below the daily house price indices from RP Data-Rismark as at 30 March 2012:

And below are the index values as at the end of February:

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A comparison of these two tables provides the change in dwelling prices in the month of March:

According to RP Data-Rismark, dwelling prices rose nationally by 0.13% over the month, with the strong rise in Perth dwelling values (+1.36%) mostly offset by an even larger fall in Adelaide dwelling values (-1.52%).

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One important caveat to the reported slight increase in national home prices in March is that RP Data-Rismark’s daily index is not seasonally adjusted. According to the 2010 and 2011 March house price releases from RP Data-Rismark (see here and here), the seasonally adjusted result was between -0.2% and -0.3% lower than the unadjusted (non-seasonally adjusted) figure, implying that Australian dwelling values typically rise during the month of March.

Therefore, adjusting for seasonality implies that national capital city home prices remained more or less “flat” in the month of March.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.