Housing Affordability Improves

According to the HIA, housing affordability continued to improve in the June 2013 quarter.

The HIA Commonwealth Bank Housing Affordability index increased by 4.4% to a level of 72.8 in the June Quarter.

Chief economist at HIA Dr Harley Dale stated that housing affordability is now 16.7% higher than the same period in 2012.

"The considerable reduction in interest rates is more than offsetting recent dwelling price increases. Current improvements in housing affordability do not represent structural shifts in Australia's affordability, they represent the dominant impact of cyclical changes in lending rates, which will be prone to reversal at some point".

According to Doctor Dale, genuine structural improvements would require the stock of housing supply to grow with the population and its housing needs.

All capital cities saw the index increase in the JUNE 2013 quarter - Brisbane was the best performer with a rise of 10.4%.