Thursday, February 26, 2009

Best and Worst Suburbs in Perth for 2008

Suburbs have been recently compared for the year to October 2008, to come up with a list of best and worst performing suburbs in Perth by the median house price of houses sold. 

Here they are:

Best performing suburbs for houses in WA in 2008 were:

Applecross: 36 homes sold at a median price of $2,387,500 and annual growth of 40.44 per cent

Dongara: 10 homes sold at a median price of $516,500 and an annual growth rate up 38.66 per cent 

Coolbinia: 17 homes sold at a median price of $1,260,000 and an annual growth rate up 35.48 per cent 

South Hedland: 61 homes sold at a median price of $505,000 and an annual growth rate up 32.89 per cent 

Dampier: 16 homes sold at a median price of $905,000 and an annual growth rate up 29.29 per cent 

Chidlow: 17 homes sold at a median price of $540,000 and an annual growth rate up 28.96 per cent 

Banjup: 13 homes sold at a median price of $1,200,000 and an annual growth rate up 28.34 per cent 

Karawara: 12 homes sold at a median price of $736,500 and an annual growth rate up 28.09 per cent 

Baynton: 23 homes sold at a median price of $960,000 and an annual growth rate up 28.00 per cent 

East Fremantle: 34 homes sold at a median price of $1,204,000 and an annual growth rate up 26.07 per cent 


Worst performers 

Mount Barker: 15 homes sold at a median price of $200,000 and an annul growth rate down 28.25 per cent 

Abbey: 10 homes sold at a median price of $622,500 and an annual growth rate down 26.11 per cent 

Brockman: 10 homes sold at a median price of $315,000 and an annual growth rate down 23.17 per cent 

Binningup: 15 homes sold at a median price of $400,000 and an annual growth rate down 20.00 per cent 

Kojonup: 15 homes sold at a median price of $150,000 and an annual growth rate down 18.92 per cent 

Dunsborough: 53 homes sold at a median price of $558,000 and an annual growth rate down 18.84 per cent 

Joondanna: 22 homes sold at a median price of $592,500 and an annual growth rate down 17.48 per cent 

Busselton: 12 homes sold at a median price of $475,000 and an annual growth rate down 16.96 per cent 

Fremantle: 27 homes sold at a median price of $740,000 and an annual growth rate down 15.91 per cent 

Rossmoyne: 22 homes sold at a median price of $959,500 and an annual growth rate down15.83 per cent 


Source: News.com.au

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Easiest places to sell a house in Perth

Dalkeith has been revealed as the quickest suburb in Perth to sell a house, with the average time on the market to sell a home at 17 days compared to the city's average of 44.

Despite the sluggish property market, buyers are prepared to fork out the $2.8 million median price for a Dalkeith home, with 33 sold during November 2008, new figures from RP Data show.

Riverton came in second with average time on the market at 20 days and 34 sold in November. The median value for homes in the suburb was $576,750.

Craigie was the popular option for buyers in November, with 120 sold at a median value of $382,500 and an average time on the market of 27 days.

On the units front, Melville was the quickest selling suburb in Perth with the average time on market at 23 days and a median value of $543,500. RP said 34 units were sold in November. Tuart Hill was the popular option with 102 units sold at a median value of $327,500 and an average time on market of 28 days.

- Taken from WA Business News

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tips for Homebuyers

Peter.com.au has the following tips for buying a house. Worth remembering some of these whilst looking for a house. 
  • In general, real estate agents work for the buyer - they are more interested in a quick, low effort, sale than in a good price (it is much better to earn 10% of $100,000 with one day of work than 10% of $120,000 with one months work).
  • Check any city by-laws, caveats, or easements on the house.
  • Check caveats on the contract.
  • Ensure enough time is allowed for loan approval, at least ten working days.
  • Try to keep your emotions under control and not get too emotionally involved with the house you might purchase (this is usually not really possible). Try not to let them play on your emotions.
  • Allow money for fixing the place up (new carpets, repainting, cleaning, repairs). It is often better to buy a house five or ten thousands dollarys cheaper and use the difference to fix the place up (the same applies for cars).
  • Remember (preferably photograph) wall fixtures lest they disappear between acceptance and ownership.
  • Check light fittings (some people even steel the light bulbs out of the house!).
  • Redirect your mail and also print stickers for readdressing your mail and leave them with the new owners of your old house. The post office understands NATA = Not at this address and RTS = return to sender, so after six months or so you can just scribble NATA RTS on any wrongly addressed mail and drop it in the outgoing mail pile.

Subscribe to this blog to get more tips and hints about buying a house or if you want to share some of your experience, leave a comment here.

Friday, February 6, 2009

WA First Homebuyers Get More

An article from WA Business News said that WA first homebuyers get more than their Eastern States counterparts.

"Victorians receive $17,000, however after state stamp duty and other fees, net assistance is slashed back to just $5,992. This represents about 2.2 per cent of the average property value of $275,000.By contrast, WA first home buyers receive about $14,000 in grants but because there is also a $2,000 first home buyers assistance account, the net assistance balloons to $15,740. In WA this is 5.4 per cent of the average property value of $290,000 (bearing in mind this is falling)..."

We also get exemption from stamp duty for properties under $500k.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

RBA drops Interest Rate 1%

In a very eventful day, the RBA dropped interest rates in Australia by 1%, from 4.25% to 3.25% with some commentators (John Symonds from Aussie Home Loans) suggesting that there is another 1.5% to drop.

At the same time, the Rudd government announced a stimulus package that will give every worker earning less than $80,000 a cash payment of $950 and other $950 payments for farmers and single income households.

The effect of these measures remain to be seen but it looks like its a good time for WA first homebuyers to get into the market. Already there has been an increase in land sales in the last quarter, going up 29% from the previous quarter according to Urban Development Institute of Australia.

For me, i'm still holding out. There should be more to go from here.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Perth House Prices drops 6.7% in 2008

From the WA Business News: 

Perth has recorded the largest annual drop in the average house price in 2008, according to latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ABS today released quarterly results for average house prices, with the value of homes in Perth falling 0.9 per cent during the three months to the end of December.

The worst hit cities were Melbourne, down 1.7 per cent and Brisbane dropped 1.2 per cent.

Nationally, the house price index fell a further 0.8 per cent in the quarter.

Economists had expected a 1 per cent fall.

Over the year, Perth prices fell 6.7 per cent, while Sydney and Canberra prices were both off 4.1 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is widely expected to cut its cash rate again by at least 75 basis points when its board meets for the first time this year on Tuesday.

The central bank slashed the rate by 300 basis points between September and December last year in attempts to stave off a recession.

The federal government also doubled the First Home Owners Grant to $14,000 for the purchase of existing houses as part of last year's $10.4 billion economic stimulus package, and to $21,000 for newly built homes.

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