Perth median price decline slowing right down

He said that this small movement has a significant implication.

“This negligible adjustment in price over the month signals house prices are overall very stable, with the minor decline attributed to a small variance in the composition of sales between April and May,” Mr Groves said.

“Importantly, when we compare house prices to three months ago in February, Perth’s median price is actually up by 1.1 per cent.”

The latest REIWA figures are also supported by CoreLogic data, which shows Perth house values increased by 0.1 of a percentage point in May and were up by 0.5 of a percentage point compared to February.

Mr Groves said that the Perth market is experiencing a slow and steady improvement, something that REIWA forecast in December 2017.

“While we don’t expect rapid house price growth this year, we also don’t expect there will be substantial declines either.”

Mr Groves also said that prices in Perth’s unit market are “holding up well”, with REIWA data showing the median unit price increased by 0.8 of a percentage point to $419,000 during May 2018.

“Similar to the median house price, when we compare Perth’s latest median unit price to three months ago, prices have increased more significantly by 2.9 per cent, which is very encouraging,” the president said.

“We are seeing similar trends in the house and unit medians, which is good news as it suggests one sector of the market is not recovering at the expense of the other.

“REIWA expects house and unit prices to remain fairly stable for the remainder of the year. However, provided the WA economy remains on this path of recovery and consumer sentiment continues to build, we should start to see genuine improvements in price during 2019.”