Houses Set Pace In Rising Market
Newcastle Herald
Saturday November 30, 2002
NEWCASTLE house prices jumped 40.6% in the year to the end of September and by 35.4% for the Hunter region, a rise surpassed in NSW only by the Illawarra's 45.5% hike.
Newcastle's median house price stands at $225,000 and the Hunter's at $195,000.
The results were issued this week by the Real Estate Institute of NSW using Residex data.
They show a much higher growth rate than the 22% for the Lower Hunter for the year which the Herald reported on November 16 using preliminary statistics issued by another property monitoring group, the Home Price Guide.
The Real Estate Institute figures found Hunter unit prices rose 8.6% over the quarter and 12.8% over the year to a median of $190,000, with house prices increasing 3.2% over the same quarter.
Newcastle and Hunter Real Estate Institute president Darren Bender said considering the `phenomenal' gains in the past 12 months, the 3.2% increase in Hunter house prices for the quarter was `not bad'.
`There's a little bit of shine gone off the market but it's still a good market,' Mr Bender said.
`Interest rates are certainly not going up this side of Christmas and probably not for the first six months of next year.
`Lending institutions have brought down their fixed-loan rates in the last couple of weeks.'
Reflecting the shortage of land in the Newcastle local government area, prices shot up by 26.5% over the three months compared with the June quarter and by 18.9% over the year compared with the September quarter 2001, showing a median price of $124,000.
But the median price of a house block fell for the Hunter district as a whole, dropping 2.3% for the quarter and 6.7% for the year to $84,000.
Movement in the house market is slowing from the frenetic changeover rate of the June quarter.
The Hunter's tally of 2068 houses changing hands was a drop of 18% from the previous three months but still 18% up on last year's September quarter.
But little has changed in rentals, with the vacancy rate declining and rents rising only about 6% in Newcastle in the past financial year.
The vacancy rate for rental properties fell in the Hunter Region from 2% in August to 1.7% in September, the lowest for more than a year.
© 2002 Newcastle Herald