Housing values posted a broad-based rise in February, with CoreLogic's National Home Value Index up 0.6%.
Housing values across Melbourne increased by 0.1% in February, although the monthly change was virtually flat, this was the first positive movement in Melbourne home values since October last year.
The ongoing rise in values reflects a persistent imbalance between supply and demand, which varies in magnitude across the cities and regions.
The monthly gain was slightly higher for units than houses, but the longer-term trend has favoured the detached housing sector, where values are up 4.4% over the past year, compared with a 3% rise in unit values.
Across the broad value-based cohorts of the market, the lower quartile of the unit sector has been the only segment to record a rise in values over the past three months, with values up 0.4%.
The largest decline has been across the upper quartile of the unit market, down 1.1% over the quarter, followed by a 0.9% decline in values across the upper quartile for houses.
Potentially, we're starting to see some early signs of a boost to housing confidence, as inflation eases and expectations for a rate cut, or cuts, later this year, firm up.
The re-acceleration and value growth have been accompanied by a bounce back in auction clearance rates and in consumer sentiment.
Growth in rental values has also re-accelerated through early 2024, with a monthly pace of change rising to 0.9% in February, the highest reading since March last year.
This re-acceleration also saw the rolling quarterly change in rents rise to 2.4%, the highest since May last year.
The pickup in rents is mostly a seasonal phenomenon, with the first quarter of the year historically showing an accelerating trend.
However, there's also been a pickup in the annual growth trend for rents, with the national rental index up from a recent low of 8.1% in October last year to 8.5% over the 12 months ending February.
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