Australian Home Prices Fall Slightly in Dec Quarter

December quarter 2008 home prices were released by the abs today showing Australian home prices fell -0.8% nationally from the September quarter and are down -3.3% from a year ago. From their peak, Australian home prices are now down -4.0% on a national basis.


By state, Perth not surprisingly has sustained the biggest falls now down -6.7% from their peak in December 2007 whilst Darwin is the only city still setting new highs, although it should be noted that Darwin figures are highly unreliable given the low number of sales.

So whilst the Housing industry shills keep telling everyone that now is the time to buy, it appears that low interest rates and Rudd's handouts for home buyers are only serving to prevent even bigger falls in home prices.

It would seem unlikely that Australian House prices are going to fall off a cliff anytime soon with home buyer grants in place. However it will be interesting to see what the government decides to do when those grants lapse in June as the economy deteriorates and unemployment rises.