House prices continue to rise despite higher interest rates, inflation, and cost of living

ABC NEWS (Australia)

House prices continue to rise in all capital cities except Hobart. CoreLogic’s national home value index rose by 0.6% in February, the strongest monthly gain since October.

Transcript

00:00 We're living in tough economic times at the moment with inflation, interest rates,

00:07 cost of living pressures, but despite all that, last month the latest data shows house

00:13 prices actually went up a little bit.

00:18 So why is that?

00:20 Well economists believe it might be because prospective buyers are feeling a little bit

00:24 optimistic about the prospect of interest rate cuts later this year.

00:29 As well as that, the current supply of houses and apartments isn't enough to meet demand.

00:36 The CoreLogic data shows nationally housing values went up by 0.6% in February, and all

00:42 capital cities saw a rise except Hobart which fell by 0.3%.

00:46 Perth saw the greatest increase of 1.8%, Sydney was up 0.5%, and here in Melbourne house and

00:53 unit values went up by 0.1% last month.

00:58 It looks like the housing market has actually avoided a cyclical downswing.

01:02 That's where it looked like the market was going at the end of last year.

01:05 But off the back of a bit of an uptick in consumer sentiment, the prospect of a rate

01:10 reduction and continued high levels of migration, it looks like the market has avoided that

01:16 and we could continue to see a bit of an uptick in the following months.

01:20 But there are competing economic forces at play, so that uptick isn't guaranteed.

01:26 With rising unemployment, higher interest rates and lower household savings making it

01:30 tougher for people to buy a house.

01:33 So the year ahead in the property market is anything but certain.

01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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