There’s certainly been a lot of speculation and prediction going on of late, (some might prefer to calling it simple guessing), so it was great to be able to look through Corelogic’s latest house price data report to see what has really been going on amidst all the hurdles of the lockdown.

The August Housing Price report from Corelogic provides an up-to-date picture of the property market up to the end of August. What was interesting is that this report reinforced what many of us with hands-on knowledge of the real estate market have been saying for quite a while. To put it simply…yes, property prices have dropped, but nowhere near as much as most people might think, and only in the shorter term.

The Corelogic report shows that average property prices fell by just 0.4% nationally last month. If you expand your data search to look at the figures for the last three months, the drop in property values was just 1.7%. A change of this amount is a vastly different result to what many ‘experts’ would have had us believing in these challenging times.

Not surprisingly, with social distancing restrictions having been much tighter here in Melbourne, property prices here have dropped by a larger margin than the national average. However, despite all the challenges for buyers and sellers alike, it was good to see that Melbourne’s property prices fell by just 3.5% over the same quarter, including a drop of 1.2% last month.

When it comes to figures that will generate confidence, there was one other key statistic from Corelogic that provides real perspective in the current climate. The figures show that in the face of all the challenges that 2020 has provided, Melbourne’s median property value was still almost 6% higher at the end of last month than it was at the same time in 2019. Yes, you’re reading that correctly…property values here in Melbourne have increased over the past twelve months!

When you consider market data like this, it’s clear that anyone thinking of making a move this Spring has every reason to feel quite confident about it. The only missing ingredient is a decision by the Victorian Government to ease restrictions on buyers and tenants, enabling them to arrange safe individual property inspections…but hopefully that decision may not be too far away.

In the meantime, if you’d like to have a chat about getting your property ‘market-ready’ in time for the launch of this year’s abbreviated Spring market, you can give the team at Barry Plant Caroline Springs and Taylors Lakes a call on 9390 8333.

Cheers,

James Hatzimoisis & John Aaron Nakic

Directors – Barry Plant Real Estate

Taylors Lakes, St Albans & Caroline Springs