Virus cases in single digits
A significant day for Victoria, with just 5 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, only 1 of which came from an unknown source.
There has been but a small smattering of returned traveller cases across the rest of the country lately, but reported cases in the community have completely dried up over recent days, even in Sydney and New South Wales.
7 positive cases came to light today in a ship offshore from the Pilbara, but as such these won't show up in the official figures until tomorrow.
Australia is also now heading into its warmer spring and then summer months, which seems likely to help contain further spread of the coronavirus, based on reports from overseas.
Restrictions eased
Attention is now turning towards the easing of restrictions, with an estimated 127,000 workers now able to return to work in Victoria under the newly-implemented 'Stage Two' measures.
The 9am to 5pm curfew will now be lifted, but in order to proceed to 'Stage Three' measures, the average for new cases will have to remain at under 5 for a sustained 14-day period.
In Victoria it's now become possible for realtors to schedule private inspections again.
Stock listing levels in Melbourne are understandably very low, so it's reasonable to expect there to be a rush of activity over the coming weeks.
According to CoreLogic's index, Melbourne home values have declined by about 6 per cent since peaking in the early part of April.
At the weekend Sydney's auction market continued to strengthen, with a preliminary clearance rate of 74.8 per cent from 630 reported auction results this week, with Sydney prices apparently bottoming out only a couple of per cent lower than where they were sitting pre-COVID.
Source: CoreLogic
With a dozen lenders cutting interest rates further this week in anticipation of further easing the bottom is probably just about in for housing prices at the 5-capital city aggregate level, inclusive of Gold Coast.
At the capital city level, home values fell by 3 per cent over a 5-month period, having peaked on 11 April.
