Another day, another warning from financial experts—this time pertaining to the shock jump in US inflation that could lead to steeper interest rate increases here in Australia. Wouldn’t it be nice if the news had a snooze button? Just ten more minutes without the threat of a global recession, please and thank you.
But despite the alarm, remember that what goes up must come down. We’re seeing it now with house prices across the country, which have fallen by 2.7% nationally since their peak last year. Rising interest rates are of course largely responsible for the downturn, and if hikes continue then that percentage will surely follow suit. But not all suburbs are created equal, with a number of neighbourhoods throughout NSW defying the downturn.
Despite the post-pandemic return to city life (at least in part), regional areas that boomed as the sea/tree change mentality swept the state during Covid are still going strong while both market interest and prices in the rest of the city continue to decline.
When it comes to the highest growth, the two regions tied for the top spot are NSW central west and the Riverina region. Both are up 19.73% between August last year and now, according to PropTrack data. In the central west, which encompasses regional hotspots like Orange and Mudgee, the average property price sits out around $602,000. Meanwhile, in the Riverina region, which includes suburbs like Griffith and Wagga Wagga, the house median is $477,000.
In the north region of New England, house prices are up 18.6%, with Tamworth continuing to enjoy a surge in popularity. In the state’s south, the Murray region has surged 17.41% despite homebuyer interest dropping off during the downturn.
The inner and outer south west of Sydney is also holding strong in Sydney’s volatile market, with suburbs including Liverpool, Canterbury, and Bankstown surging by 6.99% in a month. The Campbelltown area has seen growth upwards of 5.8%, while house prices in outer west suburbs like Blacktown, Mt. Druitt and Penrith are up 5.78%. Though not as impressive, Greater Western Sydney suburbs like Baulkham Hills and Parramatta continue to see growth, with rises of 2.72% and 1.08% respectively.
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Further north, on the Central Coast, prices are still on the up, despite the market slowing. Last year, the central coast enjoyed some of the highest growth in the country, with suburbs like Copacabana more than doubling its median house value ($923K to $1.9M) between March 2020 and February 2022. While that big of a boom is certainly behind us, the central coast region is still on the front foot with positive home growth of 3.08%. At least that’s where things stand today—but who knows what tomorrow’s news will bring.
