With a cool weekend for worthy Real Estate Bust news, lets turn our attention briefly to the Sydney, Australia real estate market, where properties are attractive to many buyers for the first time in over 2 years. With prices falling almost 10% and wages rising over 12%, observing the Sydney market could be a prudent move for those that are betting on the domestic market's direction.
A good summary of the current state of the market after the jump...In parts of Canada, there's hardly a hint of a housing slowdown. In Alberta for instance, new home prices in Calgary were up 29.6% from a year ago and jumped 5.9% in March alone. Edmonton new home prices were up 14.3% from a year ago. According to the latest data from the Calgary Real Estate Board, the average sale price of an existing home is up 37.1% over last year. According to analysts, Alberta's gains were responsible for half of the 7.6% increase in homes across all of Canada. Without the Alberta numbers, Canadian new home prices would have been up 4.1% in March from a year earlier. Analysts attribute much of this rise to the oil boom and what they call a shortage of serviceable lots.
All is not all rosy though on the other side of the country, though....
Taking a look at the current state of the residential market in Sydney, "The Sydney Morning Herald" evaluates its current state and the reasons for why it came about. Looks like those that bought at the peak (end of 2003) got hit the worst.
Here's an excerpt:
"The Reserve Bank published figures yesterday showing Sydney house prices fell 1.1 per cent on average in the March quarter. Prices have now fallen 9.6 per cent on average since property prices turned, slashing the city's median home value from $570,000 to $516,000."