The Median Sydney House Asking Price is Now Above $1,060,000

The number of Australian residential property sale listings rose during March in most capital cities, though Canberra and Melbourne recorded an unseasonal fall in listings.

Nationally, the number of unsold properties reached 358,167 in March 2015, rising 1.8% from February 2015, with the number of listings up 1.6% from a year earlier.

Normal seasonality plus the ongoing housing downturn in Perth and Darwin were the main reasons for the rise.

Critically though, Melbourne recorded abnormal decreases, with listings falling by one percent to 38,027 properties for sale.

Melbourne property market listings are now down 14.7%, year-on-year.

Canberra recorded a 2.6% decline to 3,401 listings.

Sydney property market listings rose from the normal lull in February, however year-on-year, Sydney listings are down by 8.8%.

The total number of listings in Sydney is now 22,123 residential properties on the market. Critically asking prices in Sydney rose again by 2.7% for houses and 1.7% for the month on units.

The median asking price for a house in Sydney is now $1,066,000.

It is perfectly normal for listings to rise in March as the market in February is still in the process of opening up for the new season

What was different in these results however were the falls recorded in Melbourne.

We are now recording a clear downtrend in properties for sale in Melbourne.

Such a downtrend to me suggests the market in Melbourne is picking and there are now more buyers than sellers.

Previously, Melbourne was very much a mixed market.

But this suggests the recovery is becoming more uniform across the city.

In contrast, median asking house prices in Darwin continue to fall with year-on-year comparison showing a 12 month decline of 5.1%.

Perth also recorded house asking price declines in the month of 2.8%.