Dwelling turnover rate at 16-year low

By Gavin R. Putland

The RBA's quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy is usually good for at least one killer graph. Here's the latest winner:

The bottom curve shows that in Q3 of 2010, the dwelling turnover rate — that is, the turnover of dwellings expressed as a percentage of stock per year — fell below the “GFC” minimum. In Q4 of 2010 it fell again, to its lowest point since the sequence began in 1995. That record was broken in Q1 of 2011. The turnover rate was then down by more than a third from the peak in Q3 of 2009.

Considering that neither the mining boom nor the First Home Owners' Boost could restore the turnover rate to the heady heights of Q2'01 to Q3'03, one is left with the distinct impression of a market running out of greater fools.