Glass is half full view of Aust housing recovery

An optimistic piece of journalism on the Australian Housing market from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Home finance rise could be start of a recovery

A rise in mortgage lending during August could be the start of a recovery in the housing sector, economists say.

Australian housing finance commitments for owner-occupied housing rose 1.6 cent in August, seasonally adjusted, to 64,365, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed today.

Total housing finance by value fell 0.3 per cent in August, seasonally adjusted, to $22.190 billion.

Economists had expected a rise of 1.1 per cent for housing finance commitments for owner occupiers.

I guess it could be a sign of a recovery then again it might not be. One thing we do know is that one month of data does not make a trend. Whilst there is still a very real possibility of the RBA raising rates in the near term it's difficult to envision a strong recovery in housing anytime soon.