The average price of a house in Australia has risen to $656,800

David Scutt| Business Insider| 21 March 2017

http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/homeandproperty/the-average-price-of-a-house-in-australia-has-risen-to-dollar656800/ar-BByubPx?li=AAavLaF&ocid=spartanntp

Australia’s 9.8 million residential dwellings were worth a collective $6.439 trillion at the end of the December quarter last year, according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this morning.

The Bureau’s residential property price index (RPPI) said that capital city prices rose by a hefty 4.1% in weighted terms during the quarter, leaving the increase on the same quarter a year earlier at 7.7%.

The quarterly increase was the largest since the June quarter of 2015.

In dollar terms, that equated to an increase in the value of Australia’s housing stock of $274.8 billion in just three months.

The average price of a residential dwelling across the country rose to $656,800, an increase of $25,400 on the prior quarter.

The total number of dwellings increased by 39,600 over the same period.

By individual capital, the ABS said that prices surged by 5.3% and 5.2% respectively in Melbourne and Sydney over the quarter, a result that fits with other alternative house price indicators.

Hobart, with prices up 4.5%, took out third spot, followed by Canberra and Brisbane with gains of 2.8% and 2.2% apiece.

Darwin was the only capital to record a drop in prices during the quarter, sliding 1.5%.