[Claire Halliday]

As Australians face another interest rate rise announcement by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), thinking back to times gone past show a range of home owner experiences and Australian property market rises (and falls).
Check out this potted history* of housing prices in Australia across the last 150 years.

The best of times…
1950
In a one-year period to 1950, property prices soared by a whopping 132.5 per cent. This climb came after six straight years with no price growth, thanks to the government cap on property sales after WWII. Once the cap lifted, property prices skyrocketed.

The worst of times…

1930 was a very bad year for property price growth (but a great time to buy if you were one of the lucky ones with cash to spare …). Australian property prices fell 18 per cent as a response to The Great Depression that started in late 1929, after the stock market crash in October that year.
Job losses across the country saw people who could not pay their mortgages lose their homes – and that created a property price crash.

Five golden years…
Between 1949 to 1954 property prices in Australia increased by 172.4 per cent. On the flip-side, between 1891-1896, property prices fell by 34.9 per cent because of economic turmoil caused by a range of factors – including shearer strikes, miner strikes and a banking crisis.

An impressive 20-year period
Between 1969 to 1989, prices increased a massive 941.5 per cent.
It was an era of prosperity, mainly due to the growing number of migrants keen to call Australia home, creating a huge demand for property.
*Data source: The University of New South Wales

Of course, measuring and comparing financial impact and stress is multifaceted, obviously, but as today’s homeowners and mortgage holders absorb another price hike, looking back to imagine how other Australians coped with the rise and fall of property prices over the decades is interesting.

How much was your first home? Do you know what your parents or grandparents paid for theirs?

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