What do Wahroonga, Woollahra, Clontarf and Northwood have in common?.........Their median age is all over 40!
And what do Annandale, Surry Hills and Alexandria have in common? Apart
from being a lot closer to the city than the first lot of suburbs, that
is. Their median age is well below that of the national median of 37.
What does that tell us? That too many questions in a blog bore the reader?
True, but may I also suggest a correlation between what were once golden oldies (metaphorically but now literally) and hip young suburbs with values on the ascendancy.
After all, when the RPData figures are crunched in the 12 months to September, Wahroonga’s house values are down 1 per cent, Woollahra’s are down 12.1 per cent, Clontarf’s are down 2.4 per cent and Northwood down 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, as you can by now guess, Annandale’s house values are up 6.8 per cent, Surry Hills is up 4.7 per cent, Alexandria is up 6.2 per cent.
Admittedly, median figures are a fickle measure, particularly in that far more volatile prestige market where one great sale one year will throw the median out for the following. Just look at Point Piper. Median age 48 and house values down 12.1 per cent.
But there is something to this. Some more examples?
Vaucluse has a median age of 39 (not over 40 but over the national average) and house values fell 16.5 per cent in the 12 months to September, Burradoo has a geriatric median age of 58 and values are down 1.3 per cent (but those falls are modest compared with the 13.8 per cent fall the year before and even the 15.9 per cent fall in 2010). Palm Beach is down 2.3 per cent, which is bad news for the median aged 53-year-old local. Haberfield’s median age of 44 is…. you guessed it, down 6.3 per cent.
And all this while Tempe’s median aged 38-year-old basks in the 11.2 per cent rise in values of the past year.
Of course, there is another factor clearly at play. Distance from the city. All the growth areas are less than five kilometres from the city, except Tempe which is 7.6 kilometres. And all the hard-hit prestige pockets tend to be outside the 5 and even 10 kilometre radius, except Northwood (5 kilometres) and Woollahra (3.8 kilometres).
But the point is, we all already knew that the close-to-city market was a growth area and the prestige market has been hard hit by the continuing fallout from the GFC (and only those aged in their 40s and more can afford those areas). That’s not news though.
What is worth considering is the median age of the area. After all, as many an inner west family will tell you, where the yuppies once moved in, gentrified and then took off for the suburbs, home buyers now won’t budge for love or property. It’s too easy living close to the city, near each other and with so many diverse types of us nearby. And once kids are enrolled in local schools, well… it just makes moving all the harder.
What does that tell us? That too many questions in a blog bore the reader?
True, but may I also suggest a correlation between what were once golden oldies (metaphorically but now literally) and hip young suburbs with values on the ascendancy.
After all, when the RPData figures are crunched in the 12 months to September, Wahroonga’s house values are down 1 per cent, Woollahra’s are down 12.1 per cent, Clontarf’s are down 2.4 per cent and Northwood down 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, as you can by now guess, Annandale’s house values are up 6.8 per cent, Surry Hills is up 4.7 per cent, Alexandria is up 6.2 per cent.
Admittedly, median figures are a fickle measure, particularly in that far more volatile prestige market where one great sale one year will throw the median out for the following. Just look at Point Piper. Median age 48 and house values down 12.1 per cent.
But there is something to this. Some more examples?
Vaucluse has a median age of 39 (not over 40 but over the national average) and house values fell 16.5 per cent in the 12 months to September, Burradoo has a geriatric median age of 58 and values are down 1.3 per cent (but those falls are modest compared with the 13.8 per cent fall the year before and even the 15.9 per cent fall in 2010). Palm Beach is down 2.3 per cent, which is bad news for the median aged 53-year-old local. Haberfield’s median age of 44 is…. you guessed it, down 6.3 per cent.
And all this while Tempe’s median aged 38-year-old basks in the 11.2 per cent rise in values of the past year.
Of course, there is another factor clearly at play. Distance from the city. All the growth areas are less than five kilometres from the city, except Tempe which is 7.6 kilometres. And all the hard-hit prestige pockets tend to be outside the 5 and even 10 kilometre radius, except Northwood (5 kilometres) and Woollahra (3.8 kilometres).
But the point is, we all already knew that the close-to-city market was a growth area and the prestige market has been hard hit by the continuing fallout from the GFC (and only those aged in their 40s and more can afford those areas). That’s not news though.
What is worth considering is the median age of the area. After all, as many an inner west family will tell you, where the yuppies once moved in, gentrified and then took off for the suburbs, home buyers now won’t budge for love or property. It’s too easy living close to the city, near each other and with so many diverse types of us nearby. And once kids are enrolled in local schools, well… it just makes moving all the harder.
