Australian house prices fall but remain double the decade-ago level
While Australian house prices have declined in recent months, they are still more than double what they were a decade ago, and affordability has worsened.
House prices have dropped across several Australian capital cities in recent months, with major banks predicting further falls of 2-3% by the end of the year. However, after a decade of rapid price growth, this decline does little to improve housing affordability.
Monthly data from Cotality shows the median dwelling price in Australia peaked at A$944,000 in March, then fell to A$937,000 by the end of June – a 0.7% drop. Over the past 10 years, the median price has risen by more than A$400,000.
Another measure of affordability is how many years of household disposable income it would take to buy an average home. In 2016, the average dwelling price equated to 13 years and four months of a typical household's disposable income, according to calculations by Guardian Australia columnist Greg Jericho. By March this year, that figure had increased to over 17 years. Even with a 10% drop from the March peak, the median dwelling would still cost more than 15 years of a household's disposable income.
