Median house prices in Perth up by $5,000

Median house prices in Perth increased by $5,000 to $485,000 during the September quarter reports the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.

REIWA President Alan Bourke said their data shows property sales have climbing during October and November while median prices have stabilized to $485,000.“The high number of listings had peaked at 17,600 but is now trending down following a 14 percent jump in sales over the last couple of months,” he says. “We are now starting to see a decline in sales for the start of December, but this is a seasonal occurrence and is to be expected.”

An estimated 10 percent of sellers took properties off the market with the purpose of putting the properties up for sale come New Year. “Our data do not show any particular shifts in price ranges or geographic areas, suggesting a steady market across metropolitan Perth,” Bourke said.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the level of overall finance approvals for Western Australia in October had a modest 0.9 percent fall after the 5 percent growth in approvals for September. Bourke explained that there was a dip in new housing construction finance in October but overall level of approvals were up just 1 percent in recent months, indicating that the market is ‘bumping along the bottom.’

“Refinancing approvals, representing 32 percent of all loan approvals in the three months to October, were up by 2 per cent as borrowers looked to fix rates or change lenders for a better deal,” he added.