Hold on to that champagne, the New Year is rolling in a near 1% decline in house prices in Sydney!
Eek!
From the Oz:
The market in the east coast capitals is showing cracks, with clamps on interest-only loans hitting Sydney’s investor-driven market particularly hard.
Home values in Sydney fell 0.9 per cent last month as the pace of falls over recent months accelerated, according to the CoreLogic December home value index.
CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless said a national fall of 0.3 per cent in dwelling values over the month had dragged the quarterly figure into negative territory for the first time since April 2016.
National values were down 0.3 per cent over the quarter and rose 4.2 per cent over the year.
“Sydney’s housing market has become the most significant drag on the headline growth figures,” Mr Lawless said.
“The city’s annual rate of growth is now tracking at just 3.1 per cent; a stark difference to the recent cyclical peak when values were rising at the annual rate of 17.1 per cent only seven months ago,” he added.
Just 3% is still too much Tim, given that population growth is half that and a few other metrics:
But moving on:
Melbourne’s market also slipped, with values down 0.2 per cent over the month although prices still finished the year with an 8.9 per cent gain.
“We’re likely to see lower to negative growth rates across previously strong markets, more cautious buyers, and ongoing regulator vigilance of credit standards and investor activity.”
Negative growth = politico-housing complex talk for “everything is fine”