Home prices up for 6th month
Investor housing credit growth has been weak for every single month of 2023 to date, recording just 0.2 per cent growth in July.
Investor activity tends to amplify the housing cycle these days, and it looks like a tight rental market and a low supply of unit approvals will be ongoing features of the Aussie economy over the next few years.
Overall housing credit growth for the month was slow at 0.3 per cent for the month of July, and 4.5 per cent over the year.
That said the housing credit impulse turned north 6 months ago.
By rights housing prices should have fallen by more than they have, but there are so few forced sellers and stock is so tight that capital city prices have increased for the past 6 months on the bounce and are now higher than a year earlier, especially in Perth, Adelaide, and now Sydney.
CoreLogic will report that home values accelerate to rise by 1 per cent in August, having increased by 0.8 per cent in July.
Update - the price increase was 0.8 per cent in August
Despite an increase in listings, total listings are still -18.7 per cent lower than their half-decade average.
Source: CoreLogic
Rental vacancies declined, leading rents to rise for a 36th consecutive month, this time by 0.5 per cent.
Economy slowing
Total credit growth in the economy was just 0.3 per cent in July, following growth of 0.3 per cent in June.
Overall, credit growth has been modest now since October 2022, and the annual growth rate continues to drop sharply.
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Australia's 3-year bond yield has slipped to 3.717 per cent, the lowest level since the first week of June.
