Ahead of my live show on Tuesday evening, today I walk through the latest from our household surveys, with a focus on mortgage, rental, investor and overall household financial stress.
We look at the top stressed postcodes as represented by the data to end December 2023. We also map that data for selected urban centres, as well as default estimates.
If you want data on a specific postcode to be featured on Tuesday drop it in the comments on YouTube.
Details of our One to One Service is also found on our blog: https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/dfa-one-to-one/
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CoreLogic reported that their national Home Value Index (HVI) rose 8.1% in 2023, a significant turnaround from the 4.9% drop seen in 2022, but well below the 24.5% surge recorded in 2021. December’s 0.4% increase saw 2023 finish with a relatively soft monthly rise in home values.
Despite the annual 8.1% increase, the year was punctuated by diversity , with the annual change in housing values ranging from a 15.2% surge in Perth to a 1.6% fall across regional Victoria.
So now of course, the question is what will happen in 2024. Last week I made two shows for the channel, one on the top 5 elements supporting home price growth in 2024 and the other on the top five elements which could drive prices lower.
If you take, low supply, high demand, easing lending, Government support and RBA/APRA stability concerns, the potential for home prices, especially houses to rise in 2024 seems pretty strong. On the other hand, the risks from higher unemployment or a recession, the exit of property investors, higher delinquency and defaults, higher mortgage rates for longer, and dire housing affordability are all reasons why prices could fall in 2024.
To make an assessment of what will play out, you then have to do is to weigh the relative influence of each of these forces, against an unstable local and global economic environment.
This is something we model dynamically, in our Core Market Model, which incorporates all these elements and delivers scenarios at a post code level for houses and units.
In comparison, the AFR published estimates from a panel of 10 property market experts and economists. Overall, they take a more sober view on growth prospects for the housing market, with most tipping gains of somewhere between 1 and 5 per cent. The most optimistic prediction is for house price gains of up to 8 per cent, while the most bearish forecast is for prices to fall nationally by as much 5 per cent.
Last year’s “very unusual supply and demand dynamics” are expected to normalise in 2024, according to Barrenjoey chief economist Jo Masters, who is tipping 4.8 per cent growth nationally. Sydney house prices could rise by 3.8 per cent, with Melbourne up 3.2 per cent and Brisbane 5.9 per cent.
“Importantly, we think borrowing capacity will re-emerge as a key constraint on demand,” she told AFR Weekend in a quarterly property survey.
Trying to pin the tail on the property price donkey, is fraught with difficulty, because of the uncertainty in the system – one reason why I run scenarios, and why the specific tale you prefer will influence your expectation of price movements.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
Well, the numbers are now in so today I am going to review the performance of our channel over the last year, and specifically highlight the top 10 most watched shows.
I want to thank you for being part of the DFA community, watching our shows, and supporting us by subscribing, liking the shows, and sharing them widely. Its greatly appreciated and I want to celebrate the momentum we created together. Especially around some of our campaigns, most notably addressing the issue of bank branch closures and the need to be able to access cash.
None of these top ten were my live shows, which generally run each Tuesday evening. Generally live events tend to do less well on YT compared with recorded shows. But the great positive of live is the audience participation, which is key to building and nourishing the community. So a quick word of thanks, to all those who turn out regularly to support our live events.
And if you stand back, its clear that housing related shows rate well, as do the regular chats with Tarric and his slides, and some of the more philosophical shows such as Down the Rabbit Hole and the BRICS discussion, also did well.
If you have specific subjects you would like me to cover, or guest suggestions, drop them in the chat!
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More from our Property Insider Edwin Almeida, as we make our predictions for 2024 and discuss the latest property trends.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
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In this show, I will explore 5 reasons why home prices in Australia could rise in 2024.
If you take, low supply, high demand, easing lending, Government support and RBA/APRA stability concerns, the potential for home prices, especially houses to rise in 2024 seems pretty strong.
But in my next show, I will look at the arguments on the other side of the argument, because as you may have guessed, there are also a series of coherent arguments as to why prices might go sideways or fall!
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
This is an edited version of a live Christmas discussion with our property insider Edwin Almeida, as we reflected on the property market over the past year, and look ahead into 2024.
We covered underquoting, property price trends, auctions, service charges and granny flats as well as the risks from EV’s.
The ABS reported that Household wealth rose for the fourth straight quarter (+2.3 per cent or $339 billion) in the September quarter 2023. What you say, we are not feeling it!
The key of course is distribution across households, and the nexus is property values. The ABS says “Household wealth is supported by house prices which have continued to grow despite increases in interest rates” so that total household wealth was $15.3 trillion in the September quarter, which was 7.0 per cent ($998 billion) higher than a year ago. This was largely driven by residential land and dwellings, which contributed 1.7 percentage points to quarterly growth.
And the growth in household wealth was also supported by seasonal tax refunds coming in at the start of the financial year, with deposits increasing 3.4 per cent ($52.8 billion) over the September quarter.
Deposits into accessible transaction accounts (known as Transferrable Deposits) made up $24.4 billion of this increase, with most going into offset accounts. Another $26.1 billion was invested in high interest Non-Transferable Deposits, including term deposits.
So, if you are in the right cohorts, with savings, mortgage free houses, and other assets, you are doing well, whereas many others are simply not. If you are a renter, or mortgaged up to the gills your wealth could well be minimal, while debts are building. So actually, this a symptom of the building inequality in the system.
This puts the RBA in a tricky position. And in fact, while markets doubt the Reserve Bank of Australia will deliver any more rate rises, with current cash rate at 4.35%, the central bank warned on Tuesday it may need to deliver another cash rate increase if inflation remains too high.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
Despite the recent recessionary news from New Zealand, low consumer confidence and high interest rates with floating rates around 8.63%, the latest ASB Housing Confidence survey shows that “for the first time in eighteen months, more New Zealanders expect house prices to increase than decrease”. Aucklanders continue to be the most bullish in their house price expectations with a net 39% anticipating prices will rise.
They say more bullish housing market sentiment is very much a New Zealand-wide story. All of the regions we survey are anticipating prices will rise by a net margin of 30-40%. While the housing demand/supply balance varies from region to region, other factors are likely to be driving prices higher – the likelihood mortgage rates are close to peaking and the prospect of a more stimulatory government policy regime – are national in scope.
They conclude, “With recent data generally showing prices no longer falling, Kiwis tend to think the housing market has reached a turning point” Despite this, There’s been little change in the net balance of Kiwis who think now is a good time to buy a house, with that figure unchanged at 6%. Still, that’s a far cry from the mood of the market over much of last year, where by a 20-30% margin, respondents felt it was a bad time to buy.
But the key to this expectation is the high migration flows.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
This is an edit of a live discussion with Dr Cameron K. Murray, an independent economist who publishes at Fresh Economic Thinking https://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/. We discussed housing policy and economics in general.
Here is the link to Cameron’s new book, out February 27th 2024 https://www.amazon.com.au/Great-Housing-Hijack-keeping-Australia/dp/176147085X
He recently republished his book from 2017 Game of Mates: How favours bleed the nation as Rigged “How Networks Of Powerful Mates Rip Off Everyday Australians”.
This book will open your eyes to how Australia really works. It’s not good news, but you need to know it.’ – Ross Gittins
‘You’ll be shocked at how far the Mates have their hand in your pocket.’ – Nicholas Gruen
Australia has become one of the most unequal societies in the Western world, when just a generation ago it was one of the most equal. This is the story of how networks of Mates have come to dominate business and government, robbing ordinary Australians.
Every hour you work, thirty minutes of it goes to line the Mates’ pockets rather than your own. Mates in big corporations, industry groups, government departments, the halls of parliament and the media skew the system to suit each other. Corporations dodge taxes, so you pay more. You pay more for your house and higher interest rates on your mortgage, more for your medicines and transport, and more for your children’s education and insurance, because the Mates take a cut.
Rigged uncovers the pattern of political favours, grey gifts and information-sharing that has been allowed to build up over two decades. Drawing on extensive economic research, it exposes the Game of Mates as nothing less than cronyism on a grand scale across Australia and how we have fallen behind other countries in combating it.
