Buyers continue to abandon Australia’s tumbling housing market.
Data released today by CoreLogic shows that the nation’s final auction clearance rate plunged to its lowest level since early-May 2020, with only 53.0% of capital city auctions retuning a successful result.
The three largest capital city markets – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – recorded final clearance rates below 55%, with Melbourne’s hitting its lowest level since early September 2021:
Final auction clearance rates take a dive.
Separate data from CoreLogic also shows that sales volumes have fallen sharply, with “initial sales estimates over the June quarter 15.9% lower than the same quarter of the previous year”:
Housing sales volumes falling.
As regular readers know, auction clearance rates have historically been a good leading indicator for house prices, as illustrated in the next chart. Therefore, the collapse in clearance rates signals further price falls:
Auction clearance rates signal more house price falls.
Indeed, the sharp fall in clearance rates across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane makes sense given all three markets are now registering price falls:
Prices across Australia’s three biggest housing markets are now falling.
With the Reserve Bank almost certain to hike interest rates aggressively over the remainder of this year, expect price falls to steepen, as well as extend to the other capital city and regional markets.
