But house prices are supposed to always go up…

The latest ABS quarterly House Price Index (March 2009) for established houses show continued falls in five of Australia’s eight capital cities.

• The average decline across the eight cities for the 12 months till March 09 was – 6.7 per cent.
• The House Price Index has now fallen for the past four consecutive quarters.
• On an annual basis, only Darwin and Hobart prices have increased in price.
• Perth continues to be the worst performing market with a quarterly fall of – 3.6 per cent, with an annual fall of – 10.1 per cent.

Chart 1: Year on year and quarterly established house prices by capital city
The following graph gives a better picture of what has been happening to Australian house prices in the last 5 years.

Chart 2: Year on year Australian established House Prices
Source: ABS

But housing prices are always supposed to go up… right?
They said, "Buy now, or be priced out... FOREVER"

Cheers
Scott