Sydney and Melbourne house price falls accelerate

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CoreLogic’s daily dwelling values index, which measures price growth across the five major capitals, fell by 0.22% in the week ended 16 June. This was the largest weekly decline since July 2020 during the depths of the pandemic:

CoreLogic weekly dwelling value change

Sydney and Melbourne drove the fall with values plunging 0.36% and 0.32% respectively over the week. Value growth also slowed to a crawl in Brisbane and Perth, whereas it remained strong in Adelaide:

Weekly house price change
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So far in June, values have fallen by 0.27% with Sydney (-0.61%) and Melbourne (-0.44%) suffering heavy falls. By contrast, values have risen across the other major capitals:

Monthly house price change

Quarterly dwelling value growth has turned negative (-0.1%) at the 5-city level, driven by falls across Sydney (-1.8%) and Melbourne (-1.2%). Again, values have risen strongly across the other major capitals:

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Quarterly house price change

Finally, since the beginning of the year, dwelling values have risen by 1.1% across the five major capitals, with strong growth across Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, which were mostly offset by declines across Sydney and Melbourne:

2022 Australian house price movements
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With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) tipped to aggressively lift interest rates over the next year, Sydney and Melbourne will continue to lead the nation’s housing market lower.

How big the correction goes will depend on how aggressively the RBA hikes rates. If the RBA hikes as aggressively as financial markets are tipping, then expect a full blown price crash.

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.