Australia: Dwelling price slippage continues - Westpac

Australia's housing markets continue to see price slippage in early 2018 as the CoreLogic home value index, covering the eight major capital cities, dipped another 0.2% in March, the fifth consecutive monthly decline with prices nationally now down 1.4% from their Oct peak, points out Matthew Hassan, Research Analyst at Westpac.

Key Quotes

“Annual price growth slowed to 0.8%, a new low since the price correction in 2011-12. Note that data updates are now clear of holiday distortions with seasonal factors essentially neutral in the March month.”

“The dwelling-type breakdown continues to show more pronounced weakness for houses, prices down 0.2% in the month and barely up 0.2%yr. Unit prices were again flat nationally in March with annual price growth somewhat firmer at 2.6%yr.”

“Overall, the March update is another soft read. While the pace of declines nationally may not be accelerating there are few convincing signs that they are moderating.   Indeed, if anything there are signs that price slippage may be extending to a broader range of markets.”