Property Winners And Losers…

Core Logic released their annual Best of the Best report, and they say that while at first glance, the Australian housing market was surprisingly resilient through 2024, it can be characterised as having stronger conditions ‘out of the gate’, which slowed over the course of the year under waning demand, rising levels of advertised supply and a changed outlook for inflation and interest rates.

There were significant variations across property types and locations, with significant rises and falls, and units doing better than houses.

Melbourne dominated the list of the worst-performing house and unit markets, underscoring the city’s weak showing this year. House prices in Chelsea, Doncaster, Dromana and Bonbeach slumped between 9 per cent and 10.2 per cent, while unit values in Sunshine, Frankston South, Carnegie, Murrumbeena and Caulfield South dropped by as much as 13.8 per cent.

Sydney suburbs Zetland and Cronulla were among the weakest house markets in the country, with values dropping by 9.7 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively. And that’s the point really, because the truth is, values are all over the shop at the moment, with the likelihood of further falls in some areas, unless or until we see significant rate cuts. Given what we saw yesterday reflected in the lower unemployment rate, the RBA won’t be cutting soon, so 2025 will be “interesting”….

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on [email protected] & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Early Rate Cut Hopes Dashed By Strong Australian Jobs Data!

Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in November as the nation’s golden streak of hiring gains extended, underscoring the resilience of the labor market to elevated interest rates and prompting traders to pare back bets of a February cut.

As Alex Joiner from IFM noted “Solid employment Growth in November and a tick down in the participation rate sees the unemployment rate get back down below 4%. It seems the RBA doesn’t particularly need to be in a hurry to cut rates, a February move still has a lot of optionality. It was a big full time number is encouraging and underscores a very solid print”.

Employment grew 0.2 per cent in November 2024, following an average monthly rise of 0.3 per cent since the middle of 2024, in line with recent population growth. “The recent growth in population has boosted the labour supply as employment has kept up with population growth,” the ABS noted.

Compared with Canada, the Eurozone and US, Australia seems stuck with higher inflation, yet the jobs market stays strong. This suggests the labour market continues to be relatively tight,” the ABS said.

Nothing here to suggest the RBA will cut soon. More pressure on households.

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Revealed: The Politics Of Housing And The Intergenerational War!

You can smell an election coming soon as Australia’s housing minister has declared that the Anthony Albanese government doesn’t want house prices to fall – despite them being very unaffordable for the young.

Clare O’Neil made the admission on Triple J’s youth-orientated Hack program recently, when she was hit with a barrage of questions about the housing market being ‘stacked against young people’.

‘We want to bring house price growth into something sustainable – so we’re not trying to bring down house prices,’ Ms O’Neil said.

That prompted a surprised host David Marchese to ask: ‘Why don’t you want to be seeing house prices drop? ‘If you’re looking to get into the market, if you’re a young person looking at what’s ahead of you, you definitely want to see house prices come down.’

O’Neil rejected the argument – saying ‘That may be the view of young people – it’s not the view of our government,’ she said.

Data keeps rolling out showing how unsustainable the current housing market policy path is, with the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA)’s latest Housing Affordability report for the September quarter showed average loan repayments amounted to 48.6 per cent of the median family income of $2501 a week.

This is the greatest proportion since the REIA began monitoring housing affordability in 1996.

Mind you we saw similar political confusion from the UK Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Minister who in a weekend interview managed to say both there was a housing shortage, and no housing shortage, despite high migration in the same interview. Again it shows the political back-flips polys are prepared to do.

For truth though Kudos to Adrian Orr the New Zealand Reserve Bank Governor, who said last week in an interview that the property market was a real mess. Can you imagine the RBA or Senior Politicians in Australia speaking such truth. No, because politics trumps housing policy rationality. High migration wins over bringing prices back under control. And Boomers win over younger Australians again.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on [email protected] & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

DFA Live Q&A HD Replay: Your Property Questions Answered: With Veronica Morgan

This is an edited version of a live discussion with Veronica Morgan, as we dive into a bunch of questions from our Audience. Is the market really turning? How do you avoid buying a dog of a place? Are there still good deals to be done?

Veronica Morgan is co-founder of Home Buyer Academy, co-host of Your First Home Buyer Guide podcast & The Elephant in the Room property podcast, co-founder of Suburb Help, co-host of Foxtel’s Location Location Location Australia & Relocation Relocation Australia, principal of Good Deeds Property Buyers, and author of “Auction Ready: how to buy property at auction even though you’re scared sh!#less”. She is a Licensed Real Estate Agent, Buyers Agent and Qualified Investment Property Advisor.

https://veronicamorgan.com.au

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Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/ for our One to One Service.

Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!

It has been another eventful week, for property insider Edwin Almeida and I to get our teeth into. What is the true state of the property market? How stuffed in Australia and Australians? And does crypto offer an alternative? Find out in our latest edition.

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on [email protected] & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Australia Is… Stuffed…!

Once in a while I find an article which really hits home. One such is an article in the AFR by John Kehoe, titled “Australia’s Economic Problems Have Been Brewing For Years”.

Indeed, bad policy from multiple Governments have gotten us to a bad place, and the current mob are making things worse. There are alternatives. But that would require braver leaders, and informed voters! What are the chances?

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Make Australia Healthy Again: With Tony Locantro

In this show Tony Locantro describes his journey – a carnivore success story and how it could contribute to Making Australia Healthy again.

Tony will be back for a live show on 24th December, when we will be looking at the market action, but this show is a wake-up call in terms of big food and big pharma.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

The RBA Faces Mixed Signals, But Will Likely Stand Firm On Rates…

The RBA meets Tuesday, with economists and markets predicting no change to rates. Indeed, not til later next year will rates likely come down, barring some external shock. Governor Michele Bullock said last month that inflation remains too high to consider a cut in the near term.

At the heart of the problem is the Governments spending a greater share of the economy, and stoking jobs in the public and related sector, like healthcare. States are also spending like drunken sailors, and the federal government is throwing more money at households via the electricity subsides. This is all inflationary.

On the other hand, the RBA did not take the cash rate as high as many other central banks did. As a result we have a shallower path, dodging a recession by the rate water torture will continue for longer. The upshot has been a cautious central bank that has kept the cash rate at 4.35% for the past year. By comparison, the Federal Reserve may cut for a third straight meeting this month.

So we will muddle through into 2025, and possibly face an election with rates at 4.35%. This could well become a cat fight with the RBA caught in the muddle, sorry middle.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Its Edwin’s Monday (Wednesday) Evening Property Rant!

A belated rant this week, as Edwin piles into the auction games people play, we discuss the next migration wave, and why property statistics are rubbish.

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Find more at https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/ where you can subscribe to our research alerts

Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.

If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.

Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.

Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.

Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.

Shoot Ribbon an email on [email protected] & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.

Have A Very “Squeezy” Christmas!

More households are feeling the pinch in the run up to Christmas according to our latest research and as demonstrated in the results to the end of November 2024, which we look at today.

We start with an overview of “financial stress”, defined in cash flow terms, then look at mortgage, rental, investor and overall stress across the country, as we dive into the top postcodes and consider the future scenarios for interest rates.

If you want a deep dive into a specific post code, drop it into the comments below, and I will make a subsequent show including the granular data I hold.

The full detailed set of data is available via our Patreon programme: https://www.patreon.com/DigitalFinanceAnalytics

Details of our one to one service are here: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/

http://www.martinnorth.com/

Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/

Find more at https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/ where you can subscribe to our research alerts