Values plummet across major cities

Global financial crisis. Pending doom in housing market. Values plummet across major cities.

Or not.

While there is no doubt Australian families are facing increasing living costs, sweeping sensationalist media forecasts of an incoming financial storm at the very least cloud judgement and distort the truth.

For some context, the cost of a home in Perth today averages out at a little over $500,000. A similar home in Sydney will set you back around $1.5m. Interestingly, to help with the affordability crisis the NSW government has just introduced the choice for first home buyers to either pay stamp duty upfront or annual land tax on the purchase of a home up to $1.5m.While this may be an exciting idea for many West Australians, measures like this are unfortunately not as necessary as they are in the eastern states.

With gold class affordability set to last for years to come, strong migration and a robust state government balance sheet in place, it would be reasonable to assume that WA will weather any future interest rate hikes better than most.?

So as state and federal budgets are finalised and fiscal year end dialogue is rife across social media platforms, one would hope that West Australians can temper the inevitable doomsday forecasts with a healthy dose of optimism.