See the world through the eyes of an economist.
House Prices hitting pause
Corelogic house price data for October showed a median gain of 0.3% across the nation. Historically, that’s a fairly normal result.
However, there’s a wide spread across the capitals, with Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra posting falls.
This is reflected in the listings data. Listings are up substantially in Sydney and Melbourne. Supply and Demand 101.
Retail Sales Lift on population numbers
Nominal retail trade held on to the strong gains made in August, with a small 0.1% gain in September. They’re now 2.3% higher over the year.
However, this positive number is largely driven by prices and population. Retail trade volumes continue to slide, having peaked all the way back in 2022. While on a per capita basis, trade volumes have fallen for 11 consecutive quarters now. That’s the cost-of-living crisis writ large.
That said, retail trade is holding up a lot better here than in other countries around the world.
Do we have enough homes?
Finally, some data on the housing shortage. The Economist Magazine reports that Australia has relatively few homes per 1,000 inhabitants, coming well down the list, below all of Europe, and even the US and Canada. The only ray of hope is that we have slightly more homes now per person than we did in 2011.
And that’s how the world looked through the eyes of an economist this week.
DB.