National dwelling sales by price point analysis shows affordability on the decline

Just came across a good piece from Tim Lawless from RP Data on housing affordability. He looked at the issue by analysing capital city sales by price point across the country between Q4 2008 to Q2 2010.

The key things to note from the chart are:

• during the 4th quarter of 2008, more than 72% of all capital city dwellings were sold at prices below $500,000.
• over the second quarter of this year, dwelling sales priced below $500,000 accounted for less than 56% of all sales.
• in percentage terms, the number of dwelling sales priced below $500,000 has declined by -23% between the end of 2008 and the second quarter of 2010 across the combined capital cities.

Key takeouts when looking at the price point data on a state by state basis (see tables above) were that by Q2 2010:

• Hobart and Adelaide still had the greatest proportion of sales below $300,000 but there was a marked decline in the market share (particularly in Adelaide).
• all other cities recorded less than 65% of sales at prices below $500,000
• Sydney (47.5%), Perth and Canberra (both 53.8%) recording the lowest proportion of sales below $500,000.
• much of the sales activity in the sub $500,000 market has shifted into the price points above $700,000.
• Sydney (29.6%) and Melbourne (21.5%) had the greatest proportion of sales in excess of $700,000 over the most recent quarter.

To read the full article click here