By Matthew Sims
Hobsons Bay has come in ninth place in terms of the ranking of dwelling value growth over the past 12 months, according to recent data from Corelogic.
Sitting at a median value of $814,088, the Hobsons Bay dwelling values remained static over the past year.
Melbourne City, Wyndham and Bacchus Marsh saw the most significant increases in dwelling values at 12.7 per cent, 5.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively.
CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless said it was likely too early to say the housing market has seen the lowest point of the downturn experienced as a result of interest rate rises.
“It’s possible we have seen the initial shock of a rapid rise in interest rates pass through the market and most borrowers and prospective home buyers have now ‘priced in’ further rate hikes,” he said.
“However, if interest rates continue to rise as rapidly as they have since May, we could see the rate of decline in housing values accelerate once again.”
Mr Lawless said there were improvements in other aspects of the housing market.
“Auction clearance rates also trended upwards, albeit subtly, in September and consumer sentiment nudged a little higher as well on the back of strong labour market conditions,” he said.
“We’ve also seen the flow of fresh listings continue to slide through the first month of spring, which is uncommon for this time of the year.”
Most cities continued to see a substantial buffer between current housing values and where they were at the onset of COVID in March 2020.
At the combined capital city level, housing values would need to fall a further 13.5 per cent before wiping out the gains of the recent growth cycle, while Melbourne, which saw a softer upswing than other regions (17.3 per cent from trough to peak), would only need to see a 4.3 per cent fall in values before returning to pre-COVID levels.
