First it was retail sales for March, then the labour force figures for April; now housing finance data for March has come in weak and surprisingly so.

Home loans sank for a third consecutive month in March, showing the latest sign of weakness in the housing market.

On the face of it, the 1.5% fall in home loans in March wasn't too bad, it was less than the revised 4.7% drop in February (5.6% originally), according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

But the reality was that the number of home loans approved in March fell to a 10-year low, dragged down by the Queensland floods and by November rate rise.

The number of home loans approved fell to a seasonally adjusted 44,968, the lowest level since February 2001.

The number of home loans fell 11% in the March quarter (excluding Queensland where the floods distorted the figures).

The number of loans for new houses also fell in the month and were down 8% over the quarter.

Economists' forecasts had been around an increase of 2% - 2.4%, so that's the third major statistic they have completely missed (the others were the retail sales and the jobs fall).

The ABS said the total housing finance by value fell 0.1% in March, seasonally adjusted, to $19.3 billion.

Loans for new homes rose 2.4% in the month while loans for new home construction fell 1.1%. Loans for the purchase of existing homes fell 1.8%.

The ABS said that in original terms, the number of first home buyer commitments as a percentage of total owner occupied housing finance commitments rose from 14.9% in February to 16% in March.

The ABS said home loans rose 1.5% in NSW, was down 0.7% in Victoria. In Queensland, they fell 2.4% and were down 3% in South Australia. In WA they rose 2.1% and fell 0.7% in Tasmania and 4.1% in the ACT.

Earlier this month, the ABS reported that the weighted average home price in eight capital cities fell 1.7% in the March quarter, compared with the previous three months.

The drop was the biggest since the September quarter of 2008.

From a year earlier, prices were down 0.2%, the ABS reported.

Meanwhile figures from the ABS confirm the earlier industry figures which showed a fall in new car sales last month.

The ABS said yesterday that seasonally adjusted new car sales fell 3.5% last to 84 332, from March 2011.

The fell 8.4% over the year to March.

Sales of passenger vehicles increased by just 22 units (0.0%), sales of sports utility and other vehicles fell by 9.6% and 5.5% respectively.

The ABS said that in seasonally adjusted terms, sales of new cars fell in seven of the eight states and territories for April 2011 when compared with March 2011.

NSW saw the biggest fall of 5.1%, followed by Victoria (3.5%) and Queensland (3.4%). Over the same period the Northern Territory recorded the only increase (1.6%).

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