PRICES UP AND FASTER SALES

Days-on-market data released by CoreLogic in October 2023 showed some interesting trends.

Properties are selling at their fastest pace in the past 12 months, reaching 30 d-o-m by September 2023, with the exception of August when d-o-m was 29 days. It has been steadily decreasing since January 2023 when it took an average of 36 days to sell.

Through the same period, property values have been increasing after eight consecutive months of declines.

Eliza Owen, Head of research at CoreLogic Australia, says that the trend in days on the market is closely aligned with the trend in housing values: as housing values go up, days on the market go down, and vice versa.

Properties are currently remaining on the market 10 days longer than almost two years ago when the median d-o-m was 20 days (November 2021 and a period of record-low interest rates.) They then began to take longer to sell and peaked at 36 days in January 2023 as getting finance became more challenging in a rapidly rising interest rate environment and the buyers pulled out of the market.

The market started to recover again come February amid a shortage in listings and increased buyer demand. Strong net overseas migration contributed.

CoreLogic is expecting market conditions to remain fairly stable until the end of 2023, with more substantial improvements in 2024 or possibly as late as 2025 when the downward trend in the underlying cash rate takes effect.

SOURCE: RE/MAX Australia