Historical house prices since 1960

[NonResident]

Last year I developed a website called www.retireonproperty.com to share my own journey in property investing and share all the things I have picked up and learned along the way. With a relocation from Asia to the Middle East I have not had much chance to work on the site in recent months but am planning to pick it up again and wanted to share the following article with you and invite your comments / feedback:

http://www.retireonproperty.com/pro...ch/australian-property-prices-since-1960.html

The page is about historical house prices since 1960 and I have tried to present the data in an objective manner so people can make their own conclusions. I need to update the page to include data up to 2009/2010 but was hoping to do that whilst also incorporating any comments / suggestions.

If you have any suggestions on what else you’d like to see in the website I would like to hear those as I intend to continue developing it over the years and keep all the info for free.

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[Dazz]

Hi Erik,


As some feedback, I read your website, and you seem to have quite a bit of data relating to what you call "the median Australian house", but after much searching, I could find your exact definition of what you were actually talking about.


Alexlee on this site has described in detail how this mythical beast over the decades has trnasmogrified into quite a different animal. He contends that what was typical back in 1960, perhaps a 2x1 weatherboard on a 800sqm plot of dirt in a Sydney suburb say 10km out from the CBD is vastly different from say a 4x2 brick two storey McMansion on a 400sqm plot 35km out.


I'd have to agree with him, the goalposts have moved somewhat, and therefore the tracking mechanism and definition behind the numbers need to somehow take acocunt of that. A tricky thing to do, especially when labour costs are thrown into the mix, along with the vastly different tax regimes existing between then and now.

 

[LisaP]

Hi Erik,

A very professional looking site - well done! You look like you've put a lot of time and effort into developing it.

I just have a small suggestion which might help with the credibility of the information that your provide. When referring to statistics, such as below, be sure to note the source of this information.

"If we consider 100 young Australians today and see where they would be at the age of 65, you'd find the following:

24 would be dead,

54 would be on government pension

16 would still be working, mostly because they had to, not because they wanted to. Similarly, in the US one in four Americans has to work till they die just to put food on the table.

5 would be considered financially independent, but only just.

And 1, just one out of a hundred will be wealthy."

For example, I've heard the above figures bandied around a lot, but as yet no one has actually indicated from which study or government body they have sourced this information from. These statistics are used a lot in the wealth creation industry, and accepted almost as gospel, yet for the credibility of your website, you might want to check that this these statistics are correct.

Cheers,
Lisa

 

[NonResident]

Dazz,

Thanks for the feedback and taking the time to look at the article and the site. The point you raise is very avlid and i will weave it into the market. The median house price is a very inperfect way of having something like an "average house price" which we can track but it does not take into account quality/size aspects. I personally believe this is why affordability is deemed to be such a problem in Australia because evervybody expects to start with a 4bedroom house with DLUG etc. rather than ending up in one after years of wroking and moving up the ladder...

LisaP,
Thanks for your positive feedback. The point you raise about sources is very valid, I will try to go back to where i found it and/or substaintiate some of those numbers with ABS data. The whole point of the site is to be more objective than most of the real estate sites out there. Thanks!

Erik

 

[Paul Do]

Median House Prices vs Share Prices vs Wages Inflation

http://www.ibhb.com.au/resources/long_term_house_prices.htm