on the housing Australia future fund designed to improve housing affordability, the Bureau of Statistics released the latest housing price data showing that affordability has again taken a dive.
Even more stunning is that average residential prices across New South Wales are now $284,000 higher than they were in December 2019 and $261,000 higher in Queensland. And if you live in Tasmania, you are now on average paying 49% more for a dwelling than you were before the pandemic. The signs of this improvement in house prices were there in the most recent house lending figures which showed that the amount of money being borrowed for home loans was rising much faster than the actual number of people taking out loans.
Households on average are spending a slightly lower share of their income on their mortgage interest than they were in 2008 when interest rates were 130 basis points higher at 9.8% compared to the current standard variable rate of 8.5%, or even back in 1989 when interest rates were double what they are now at the infamous 17%.
Housing became somewhat more affordable due to the rate rises that slowed house prices, but it once again is becoming less affordable – to a level much higher than was the case in 2019, let alone a decade ago.