Australian house prices are falling but are still almost double what they were a decade ago | Housing
House prices fall in many Australian capital cities as major banks predict decline %2 with 3% by the end of the year.
But after a decade of rising house prices, this will not have a significant impact on housing affordability.
Monthly data from Cotality shows the average price of a house in Australia peaked at $944,000 in March, falling 0.7% to $937,000 by the end of June. But the median home price has increased by more than $400,000 in the last 10 years.
Another way to think about home prices is how long they will take to pay off. Guardian Australia columnist Greg Jericho calculated that the average house price in Australia in 2016 was equal to 13 years and four months of a typical household’s disposable income.
As of March this year, the equivalent figure had risen to over 17 years. Even with a 10 percent decline from the March peak, the average home would still cost more than 15 years of a household’s disposable income.
The title of this article was changed on July 8, 2026. The previous version incorrectly stated that Australian house prices had more than doubled in the last decade.
