The quarterly rise of 0.8% was hampered only by Melbourne, down 0.3% - the only city to record a fall.
Melbourne now has an unstratified median house price of $700,000, down from $720,000 last quarter.
On the year, home prices increased by 4.5% across the capital cities, led by Hobart (up 6%).
The weighted capital cities index now sits at 144.3 - down from the highs of 147.6 seen in December 2017.
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| Lender | Home Loan | Interest Rate | Comparison Rate* | Monthly Repayment | Repayment type | Rate Type | Offset | Redraw | Ongoing Fees | Upfront Fees | Max LVR | Lump Sum Repayment | Additional Repayments | Split Loan Option | Tags | Features | Link | Compare | Promoted Product | Disclosure |
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6.09% p.a. | 6.11% p.a. | $3,027 | Principal & Interest | Variable | $0 | $250 | 60% |
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ABS head of price statistics Andrew Tomadini attributed the price falls in Melbourne to COVID-19 restrictions.
"Property prices continued to fall in Melbourne in the September quarter ... Melbourne house prices fell 0.3% and attached dwelling prices fell 0.2%," he said.
"Residential property transactions rose in a number of capital cities in the September quarter 2020. Substantial increases were observed in Sydney and Brisbane."
Lending data indicates the average home loan written in October was more than $566,000, with the value of new loan commitments up 0.7% in seasonally-adjusted terms.
Since September 2011, mean prices have risen 40.5% from $490,800 to $689,500, yet the ABS' wage price index has risen just 25.1% - though the Reserve Bank cash rate was 4.75% in September 2011.
Across the states, New South Wales has the highest mean price of residential dwellings at $888,900 - the lowest mean price is the Northern Territory at $425,200.
The number of residential dwellings rose by 44,000 Australia-wide in the quarter, yet the mean residential dwelling price rose $5,400.
Assuming a borrower had a 20% deposit on the mean price ($137,900), mortgage repayments would be $2,211 per month, using MoneySmart's average mortgage rate of 2.61% p.a. over a 30-year home loan.
This is just below the 30% 'mortgage stress' indicator using the ABS' average full time wage earnings.
Using the ABS house price data to Q3, a rough estimate of dwelling price upside based on people's willingness to borrow, income and rates is around 10%. If sentiment remains elevated there's likely some upside (also from slightly lower rates in Q4) #ausbiz pic.twitter.com/04ZbP7fTTM
— Alex Joiner (@IFM_Economist) December 8, 2020
Photo by Yashi Wang on Unsplash
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