Capital city housing affordability almost extinct, data reveals

​The chance of finding affordable housing in Australian capital cities is becoming almost impossible, data reveals

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The chance of finding affordable housing in Australian capital cities is becoming almost impossible, as data reveals house prices have experienced significant increases over the past decade.

According to figures compiled by RP Data, only 28% of homes sold in the 12 months to June 2014 across the capital cities were priced under $400,000. In regional areas, this was 63.9%. 

This is a drastic decrease when compared with 10 years ago – when 69.3% of capital city home sales and 86.4% of regional home sales were below $400,000.

The low-rate market could be the culprit for the ever-increasing house prices, as cheaper credit drives the demand for home loans. 

The latest financial aggregates statistics released by the Reserve Bank saw that housing lending increased by 0.5% in the month of June, and increased by 6.5% in the year to June 2014. This is a further 1.9% increase on the growth that was experienced in the year to June 2013. 

The RBA convenes today for its monthly board meeting, where it is expected to leave the cash rate on hold at 2.5% for its 13th consecutive month.

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