3 July 2012 ABS Census data just released shows 1.1 million fewer households and 595,000 fewer houses in Australia than previous estimates; Morgan Stanley researchers calculate Australia now has a 341,000 OVERSUPPLY of houses. The Census revision obliged National Housing…
26 June 2012 Homebuyers who took Prosper Australia’s advice – Don’t Buy Now! – exactly five quarters ago have typically saved themselves $64,000 from the fall in property prices compared to someone who bought. Major land price falls mean a…
13 June 2012 Victoria Planning Minister Matthew Guy has made big land price falls on Melbourne’s outskirts a certainty with his extension of the metropolitan boundary by around 7000 hectares. “The gaping chasm between developer supply and buyer demand has…
Dwelling construction continues to fall, according to the AIG-HIA Performance of Construction Index for May. Commercial construction and house building activity weakened to 34.7, where anything below 50.0 represents contraction. In parallel, the ABS Building Approvals graph looks like a…
Tidal Race. Definition: a stream of exceptionally fast tidal flow created when the tide is forced through a constriction. Australians are saving like mad and quickly paying down debt. But we stand in a Tidal Race, where the water rises…
Reposted from Bryan Kavanagh’s thedepression.org.au, an excellent source of dissident economic analysis. It helps that he is correct. If you jump off the top of a tall building, you’ll go splat at the bottom: that’s simple physics. We are told…
Corrected at 1730 to adjust (upward) the renovation figure. Many thanks, Steven Shaw for pointing out my error. Toby Johnstone is out again in the SMH recording how two brothers wasted nearly two years of their lives and endless toil…
A nifty clip from our South African colleagues Karen Cooper and Peter Meakin. Of note is their useful method comparing 300Rd p/m in land rent to the 60,000Rd we currently pay to banksters.
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has a breathless article about a flipper couple who bought, renovated and have for sale a Marrickville terrace. The underlying message: there’s profit in the renovation game. My back-of-envelope calculations based on the article’s figures show…
Philip Soos notes eight of the nine substantial property price increases over the last 131 years have resulted in a decline. He can't see why the largest increase on record would not precede another drop now. Soos does not buy the argument that Australia is suffering from a "chronic housing shortage", saying property prices have continually experienced boom-bust cycles regardless of population growth.