Market Update – January 2020

Core Logic have released their December data. It was generally good news across the board, except in Hobart and Darwin where house values declined slightly.

Recall that rather than just looking at dwelling values, I prefer to look to the fine print of the data to see what’s happening to house prices, given they’re the biggest component of what’s driving property prices.

December 2019

November 2019

Source: CoreLogic Home Price Value Index Tables (www.CoreLogic.com.au)

Note:
Red indicates a negative value, green indicates a positive value and white is neutral.

↑ represents an improvement, and ↓ represents a deterioration from the last month’s results.

Interpretation

Once again Sydney and Melbourne led the pack, although the rate of growth declined in December. That is not surprising though, as real estate usually takes a back seat to Christmas parties and family festivities as December rolls on.

Annually, Sydney was the best performing market, and Darwin the worst. Perth was the worst performing of the major capital cities, although the rate of decline slowed and we might be at, near, or just past the bottom… I’ll be watching the January and February data for Perth with interest.

The economic effect of the bushfires is that there is generally an initial shock, followed by a grieving and planning period, and then a few years later, a substantial boost as roads, houses, schools etc. are rebuilt.

So looking to 2020, the main thrust should again come from Sydney and Melbourne, with moderate gains in Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide, here or there in Hobart, and declines in Darwin. I hope to offer a more comprehensive market update in March once some 2020 economic data has been released.

By Steve McKnight

Steve McKnight, the founder of PropertyInvesting.com, is a respected property investing authority as well as Australia's #1 best-selling business author.