Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Philip Lowe says there are certain cities whose house prices increase a lot more than other cities in their countries. Lowe says this trend has been observed by his colleagues at other central banks, and the general consensus is that people are willing to pay higher prices for houses in some cities because of increased “economic or social returns” to be gained by living in them . Such places have been dubbed “superstar” cities, and Lowe says they include cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto, Auckland, and San Francisco. From The AFR:
“We shouldn’t really talk about the Australian housing market,” he said, alluding to the disparity in performance between cities. In Sydney and Melbourne, the ratio of house prices to income has “moved up a lot”.
