CoreLogic's January Housing Market Update 2022

CoreLogic has released the latest market update for January 2022. This report indicates that there was a steady growth of 1.1% in January, reflecting the softening of the market rate as the quarterly change continued to slow down. 

Tim Lawless, the Research Director of CoreLogic emphasised the importance of monitoring the trend of the housing market, as the transactional activity may pick up. 

“As the volume of home sales moves out of seasonal lows, we should get a firmer reading on how 2022 is shaping up,” he said.

“The early indication is that housing markets are starting 2022 with a similar trend to what we saw through late last year. Values are still broadly rising, but nowhere near as fast as they were in early 2021.”

“A softening in growth conditions has been influenced by less government stimulus, worsening affordability, rising fixed term mortgage rates and, more recently, a slight tightening in credit conditions, and a surge in new listings through the final quarter of last year.”

Compared to last year, national housing values rose up by 22.4% which is the highest growth since June 1989. The value in dollar terms would be $131,236 increase over a year. Brisbane recorded the highest annual growth rate of 29.2%, which is about $159,763 increase. 

In January, there was a continuation of the pattern resulting in increases of 2.3% in Brisbane, 2.2% increase in Adelaide, 1.2% increase in Hobart, and an even more gradual growth of 0.2% in Melbourne, 0.5% in Darwin, and 0.6% in Sydney and Perth.

Three capital cities, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney are recording a $1 million dollar median house value. Melbourne's median house surpassed $1 million for the first time in January, whereas it is the second month Canberra has reached the $1 million, and Sydney has climbed to just under $1.39 million.

Brisbane and Adelaide continued to grow steadily with a month-on-month 2% increase despite the other cities slowing down.

In comparison to the capital cities, regional markets have shown a stronger result with housing values, with 1.8% increase in a month and 6.3% increase in the last quarter, whereas 0.8% and 2.6% increase respectively across the capital cities. Over the three months, there was a 6.3% increase in the regionals and 2.6% increase in the capital cities. 

In the last 12 months, popularity in the regional markets with lifestyle characteristics and commutable areas such as the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven rose by 37.6%, Sunshine Coast rose by 34.4% and the Hunter Valley not inclusive of Newcastle rose by 34%. More rural regional markets also have climbed the ranks, including Central West and Capital Region of NSW. 

Despite January being the most quiet month the housing market, the activity was about 15.1% higher than last January and 39.4% higher than the average of the past 5 years. 

Download the Monthly Housing Chart Pack and the January Home Value Index.

Authored by: Tim Lawless (CoreLogic)