JUNE QTR KEY FIGURES
 | Mar Qtr 05 to Jun Qtr 05 | Jun Qtr 2004 to Jun Qtr 2005 |
| Established house prices | % change | % change |
|
| Weighted average of eight capital cities | -0.1 | -0.1 |
| Sydney | -3.1 | -5.0 |
| Melbourne | 1.3 | -1.4 |
| Brisbane | 0.8 | 1.8 |
| Adelaide | 1.5 | 7.0 |
| Perth | 3.8 | 11.7 |
| Hobart | 0.2 | -0.8 |
| Darwin | 1.4 | 8.6 |
| Canberra | 0.3 | 2.5 |
|
Established house prices, Quarterly % change
| Established house prices, Quarterly % change - June quarter 2005
|
JUNE QTR KEY POINTS
ESTABLISHED HOUSE PRICES
Quarterly Changes
- The price index for established houses in Australia fell 0.1% in the June quarter 2005, compared with an increase of 0.2% in the March quarter 2005.
- House prices rose in Perth (+3.8%), Adelaide (+1.5%), Darwin (+1.4%), Melbourne (+1.3%), Brisbane (+0.8%), Canberra (+0.3%) and Hobart (+0.2%), and fell in Sydney (-3.1%).
Annual Changes (June quarter 2004 to June quarter 2005)
- Over the twelve months to June quarter 2005, established house prices fell 0.1%. It is the first negative annual movement since March quarter 1996.
- Annually, house prices increased in: Perth (+11.7%), Darwin (+8.6%), Adelaide (+7.0%), Canberra (+2.5%) and Brisbane (+1.8%). House prices fell in Sydney (-5.0%), Melbourne (-1.4%) and Hobart (-0.8%).
NOTES
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN INTERPRETING THE ESTABLISHED HOUSE PRICE INDEX
As noted in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the Explanatory Notes of this publication, movements in the average price of established houses are derived from sales data in each period. The prices may be influenced by compositional changes (i.e. the mix of houses sold) in each quarter. In order to minimise the effects of compositional change on the measures of price change, the ABS stratifies the sales of established houses by broad geographic area.
In the June quarter 2005 Melbourne and Canberra have experienced noticeable compositional change within some strata, which is not controlled for using the current methodology. The most noticeable aspect of the compositional change is that a larger number of highly priced houses have been sold in the June quarter 2005 than in the March quarter. As a result, the price changes for Melbourne and Canberra in the June quarter 2005 may be overstated.
CHANGES IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Since late last year the ABS has been working on a project to improve the quality of the house price index. Broadly, it has involved more finely stratifying the house prices by region within each city than is currently the case and more tightly tying the indexes to the date of exchange of contracts when houses are sold, because that is the time at which the price is effectively set.
The revamped house price indexes will be released on Friday 2 December 2005 in the September quarter 2005 issue of this publication. An Information Paper will be released around mid November, providing details about the revised indexes and their underlying methodology.
INQUIRIES
For further information about these and related statistics, contact Steve Whennan on Canberra (02) 6252 6251 or the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.
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