Earned good money this year? Your house might have earned you more
CoreLogic’s Pain & Gain report showed record results for Australian home sellers in the past three months
2 min
How much did you earn this year? Was it more than $295,000?
That’s the median profit Australian home sellers made in the past three months according to data from CoreLogic released today. The property data provider released its Pain & Gain Report for the September quarter analysing 95,000 dwelling resales. The gains revealed the highest results since records began in the 90s. Total nominal gains were also higher, at $33.98 billion up from $33.3 billion in the previous quarter.
Australians are also holding onto their homes for longer, with the median period of home ownership now 9 years. For those who sold this year, that means they bought in 2015. The report noted that national home values have increased 57.7 percent in that time
Houses continued to represent the best option for capital growth, with just 2.9 percent selling at a loss compared with 9.4 percent of units. Homeowners who held their properties for two years or less were most susceptible to losses.
CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen said units were historically more likely to sell at a loss but the likelihood had grown across all properties held for shorter periods in recent years.
The impact on mortgage holders would vary, however, depending on whether they were owner occupiers or investors.
“Investors are potentially in a better position to sell at a loss, because they may be able to offset that loss on future capital gains from property,” she said. “Three years on from mortgage rate lows, the incidence of loss is rising for those who have held between two and four years.”
Indeed, not every home seller walked away with a tidy profit this quarter. The report noted Melbourne was the only capital city to experience a further downturn in values, with 9.9 percent of properties selling at a loss.
The median nominal loss was -$40,000 and the total nominal loss was $270 million over the quarter.
Australian shares fell on Thursday as Wall Street weakness, rising oil and persistent rate concerns weighed on most of the market. The S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.72 per cent to 8,702. The All Ordinaries lost 0.66 per cent to finish at 8,897. Mining stocks were hit particularly hard, while real estate also dragged on the index. …
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Borrowers cannot control the Reserve Bank, but they can control how exposed their household budget is to its next decision. The RBA meets on 29 September with inflation concerns still elevated and major-bank economists increasingly bringing forward their rate-rise calls. Fixed mortgage rates have also been moving, reducing the value of waiting for perfect certainty. …
Continue reading “What mortgage holders should do before the next RBA decision”
A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
3 min
For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
Wealthy Aussies are swapping large family homes for high-end apartments, with sales of prestige units tripling over the past decade.
Victorian auction buyers will soon receive a piece of information that has traditionally been withheld until bidding reaches it: the vendor’s reserve price. Under new property-sale and underquoting laws, agents must publish the agreed reserve at least seven days before an auction or fixed-date sale. Most changes begin on 1 October 2026 and apply to …
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