3 Months on impact on house prices post floods

There have been local impacts with Brisbane and reduced prices and higher rents, on a city level I suspect the impact has been quite limited, working out exactly how much of the slow market is due to the flooding is only an estimate though.

Rest of the year.. It's an educated guess I always say, though if forced to guess I would look at the interest rate expectation curve 18 months out, another rate rise might present some more motivated sellers, buying conditions are already good but perhaps might get even better.

A recent quote I particularly liked about the business of predicting: – From 'The Personal MBA'

'Many people make a business of selling certainty, which doesn't exist. Prediction, forecasting and other forms of business soothsaying are popular because they provide the illusion that the future is knowable and controllable. Excersizes in prediction aren't worth the cost – if there was a foolproof way to predict gas prices, interest rates, or stock prices, the people with the magix knowledge would be enormously wealthy and would have no need to sell you anything'

The latest HTW month in review newsletter has some excellent snapshots of reduced values.

Link to May 2011 HTW newsletter

I don't see any compelling value, though I'm sure there are individual gems to be picked up, the flood could have been contained or averted with the benefit of hindsight, so you imagine that future events might be better, they were saying that after Wivenhoe was first constructed though Buyer beware I think and check your insurance and risk carefully.