Looks like I bought at the peak of the housing market, but that’s OK

July 3, 2026 — 5:00am

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I shouldn’t be celebrating the slowdown of the Australian property market. I just bought my first home six months ago and am mortgaged up with nearly half of my income going towards repayments. If you count the strata fees, my housing costs are closer to 60 per cent of my pay cheque after tax.

Is that fun? Well, not hugely. And I’d be lying if I said the habit I picked up during my house-hunting days of checking the going prices in my area, and my building, has disappeared. I still regularly scan real estate listing websites to see whether I snagged a bargain – hint: I didn’t – and to get an indication about whether the decades of mortgage repayments ahead of me will be made up for by growth in the value of my property when (hopefully one day) it comes time to upsize.

This week, we learnt from property data firm Cotality that national dwelling values fell 0.4 per cent in June: the biggest monthly decline since December 2022 (back when the Reserve Bank was raising interest rates very quickly to stamp out inflation). Dwelling values slid 1.2 per cent in Sydney last month and 1 per cent in Melbourne, while those in Brisbane and Perth continued to grow, but at a much slower pace.

But hold on. Didn’t the government say its big tax changes in the May federal budget would only slow house prices, not tank them?

Well, yes, and it’s still possible that we’ll see exactly that by the time the next federal budget rolls around.

One month – or even a few – of data should not have us hitting the panic button. Why? First, because one data point, which could have been an anomaly or measurement error, is not as reliable as a string of data confirming a broader trend. But second, especially when........

© The Sydney Morning Herald