[PropertyInfo.031] House price falling?

In case you are not aware, I saw these 2 articles in weekend Sydney Morning Herald about falling house prices which I would suggest any one interested in property to have a look: "Heads in sandcastles" and "House prices head south, north and east".

Some information from the articles as below:

"Amid a pile of bad economic news, in 85 suburbs this year, from Seaforth to Strathfield, the median home sale price has exceeded $1 million. "

"The AMP Capital Investors chief economist, Shane Oliver, warned that Sydney property was about 20 per cent over-valued."

"In the US the ratio of annual income to house prices is about 3:1. In Australia it is about 6:1."

"Home owners in Clovelly and Bronte put houses on the market around Christmas and immediately rejected generous initial offers. In the past month, both houses sold for 10 to 15 per cent less than those December offers."

"Last week, property and building forecaster BIS Shrapnel provided some comfort for home owners, proclaiming that Sydney house prices will rise 18 per cent in the next three years. Others say the market is ripe for a tumble. Either way, the next three years will test the very Sydney belief that people can get rich by buying and selling houses among themselves."

"This year, US house prices have crashed 15 per cent, and recently, the fall has accelerated towards 25 per cent. But if the US is the land of the housing bubble that popped, what is Australia?"

Have a read yourself and tell you what you think??

[PropertyInfo.005] Draft Inner North Subregional Strategy Released

I first read about this news "North to feel the aqueeze" on the free "MX News" this afternoon on the train. The article says "An extra 30,000 dwellings will be squeezed into Sydney's already densely populated inner northern suburbs by the year 2031 to cater for an expected population boom".

Quickly did a search and found this "draft Inner North Subregional Strategy" on exhibition for public comment from NSW government web site: "When finalised, the Subregional Strategy will guide land-use planning until 2031 in the Hunters Hill, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Ryde and Willoughby local government areas." Click on here to read the full report and other information from NSW government web site.

Although Epping is not part of it, our close neighbouring suburb Eastwood belongs to Ryde council and was included. I am most interested in the housing part, some information shown below:



If you need any further information, please visit the web site or call 1300 305 695.

[PropertyInfo.004] How is your suburb performing?

In case you are not aware, there's another interesting report about property prices on front page of last Saturday's (7/7) Daily Telegraph, called "Winners, losers as prices hit roof". You can see the full details in this link from www.news.com.au web site.

A high level summary of the report:

• 52 suburbs median house prices of more than $1 million


• 8 new inductees to the millionaires' club: McMahon's Point, Warrawee, Fairlight, Cammeray, Waverle, Haberfield, and Pymble and Roseville Chase


• median house prices of more than $2 million: Vaucluse, Dover Heights, Clontarf and Double Bay


• number of suburbs with property values below $300,000 almost doubled in the past three years


• 10 suburbs median house prices fall below the $300,000 mark over the same period - Doonside, Summerland Point, St Andrews, Ruse, Killarney Vale, North Gosford, Tahmoor, Yennora, Noraville and Lalor Park


• 131 Sydney suburbs with median house prices between $600,000 and $1 million, while most - 252 suburbs - fall in the $300,000 to $600,000 range


• Suburbs likely to join the millionaires' club within the next 12 months: Abbotsford, Strathfield, Cronulla, Birchgrove and Lane Cove

The reporter used the term "paper millionaires" in the article. I guess it's because you won't actually get the money until you sold the house. Also, don't forget that most of the time a large portion of the money goes to the bank... Well, that's life! Any way, the word "millionaires" does make people excited no matter it's just on the paper or in bricks...

[PropertyInfo.002] Home prices set to surge again?

There was an article called "Data points to housing recovery" on 8th June in www.news.com.au as I mentioned here.

Today, in Sydney Morning Herald, there's another article called "Home prices set to surge again, fuelling debt crisis" also talking about housing market recovery.

The most scary part is, it mentioned "The Reserve Bank meets in Sydney today to discuss rates. No move is expected this month, but a strong economy is expected to fuel two more rises over the next 12 months.". Oh, no, please don't increase the interest rate....

Remember back in mid 2003 the market was quite crazy. One of our neighbours who bought his house for about $500K in around 2001, put his house for auction. There were a few parties fighting over it during the auction and it was sold for $800K. Yes, he made $300K in about 2 years! If that's his primary residency, he doesn't have to pay any tax at all.

Then the market dropped a lot since then. From earlier this year, we started noticing signs of market recovery - lots of properties in our area were sold in the first few open houses (except for a few asking for 2003 prices...), and the auction clearance rate was also very high. On our street there's only about 17 houses, 5 of them were on the market and all sold very quickly in the past 12 months.

You will certainly make a good profit if you sell your property when the market is going up. But unless you got another property or start renting, if you purchase another one in roughly the same period, you might loose most/all of them in the 2nd purchase. Plus, you have to pay all charges twice...

1 Australian dollar was buying over $0.85 US dollars in last night's news. Wonder how long will this be going...

[PropertyInfo.001] Data points to housing recovery

There's a news article in news.com.au today talking about recovering housing markets, see
Data points to housing recovery.

Hope this won't add too much pressure for another interest rate rise....