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New data from property analytics company CoreLogic has found home values increased for the fifth consecutive month in July.
According to the company’s Hedonic Home Value Index, the national home value index increased by 0.7 per cent last month.
However, the pace of price growth has slowed – with the last two months of growth down from 1.2 per cent increase achieved in May.
When compared to the house price floor of February 2023 (when they fell 9.1 per cent from the peak in April 2022), house prices are up 4.1 per cent, according to CoreLogic.
The largest drop in house prices has been in Sydney, according to the report – where home value growth halved from 1.8 in May to 0.9 per cent in July.
Brisbane and Adelaide were the only capital cities to see their monthly pace of growth accelerate in July, both with 1.4 per cent growth.
Elsewhere across the nation, Canberra was the only major city to see a decline in growth, -0.1 per cent, while Hobart remained steady with no increase, according to CoreLogic.
Drops in home values in the upper quartile of the market have been largely to blame for the softening in price growth. Growth in the upper quartile of the combined capitals diminished from 1.8 per cent in May to 0.7 per cent in July, while the growth of the lower quartile of the market and the “broad middle of the market” remained steady after smaller but more consistent growth previously.
CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said: “Some resilience in growth across the middle and more affordable end of the market aligns with housing finance data that has shown a stronger bounce back in the value of lending to first home buyers and investors over recent months.
“These segments tend to be more active across the middle to lower end of the pricing range where competition to purchase a home may be more intense.
“Premium housing markets tend to lead the cycles, so the slowdown in the pace of growth could be a sign of broader easing in the pace of growth over the coming months.”
Regional areas took out the top three spots for the greatest rise in housing values over the three months ending in July, according to CoreLogic, with the Gold Coast achieving 4.0 per cent growth, South East regional Tasmania with 3.1 per cent growth, and the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region with 3.0 per cent growth.
The property analytics company flagged that July also saw an increase in new listings added to the capital city housing market, rising by 3.9 per cent over the past four weeks, shunning the traditional trend that sees new listings fall away during winter.
Mr Lawless said the increase could be due to owners seeing low stock levels on the market and stronger selling conditions and “picking current market conditions as a good time to sell, rather than waiting until spring when stock levels might be higher”.
Similarly, real estate appraiser PropTrack has also noted that prices were up last month, with its Home Price Index finding that national home prices increased 0.16 per cent in July.
PropTrack also found Adelaide and Brisbane as the capital cities with the strongest growth over July, 0.62 per cent and 0.37 per cent, respectively, while regional areas had a decline in growth by -0.03 per cent, with regional Western Australia hit with the most substantial decrease of -0.59 per cent.
The organisation said the increased auction activity and steady clearance rates are “likely to buoy seller confidence”, which could slow the growth of prices as spring approaches and new listings reach the market.
While the full impact of recent rate rises has yet to be felt, rates are nearing their peak, which PropTrack said would “likely sustain confidence and maintain the lift in home prices, resulting in more markets returning to positive annual price growth”.
[Related: ‘Increasingly entrenched’ property rebound a ‘headache’ for RBA]
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