Just in case you were ever worried that the Australian housing market might crumble, the latest ABS housing loan figures show that in November the value of new housing finance was 13% above that of a year earlier.

And because of the strong link between growth loans and house prices, this suggests that house prices should continue to rise very solidly through the next six months:

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It’s quite amazing how nothing – not a pandemic, not rising interest rates – seems to do much to dampen the housing market. Amazing that is unless you forget that the entire focus of political pressure over the past 40 years or so has been designed to keep house prices from falling, or even abating.

Given that, it is little wonder that Australians continue to think buying a house is a good financial decision and the cost of loans continues to rise:

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Average mortgages over the past two years have been relatively flat, but that came in the time that rates rose faster than they have in 30 years, and after the absurd price growth in 2020 and 2021. And even then the flatness mostly occurred in New........

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