Double first for Australian home prices

By Gavin R. Putland

In the September quarter, the ABS house price index fell year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter in all eight Australian capital cities.

This is the first time that the index has fallen year-on-year in all eight cities, and the first time that the initially reported index has fallen quarter-on-quarter in all eight cities — although the revised index fell in all eight cities in the quarter to March 2011.

Update (5.10pm): As the following graph shows,* the weighted “Eight Capital Cities” index has fallen below the peak of 2007 in real terms, and is clearly below the peaks of 2003 and 2007 when scaled to per-capita GDP.

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* Full sources for the graph were given on Oct.25.