PropTrack data shows slight fall in house prices for Hunter, Central Coast, Mid North Coast

There’s no question house prices across the state have surged in the past few years, but are they on the way down? Read the latest trends across the Hunter, Central Coast and Mid-North Coast.

Getting into the housing market has been a bit of a pipedream for a number of potential home buyers lately.

Property values have boomed across the state, as people are being forced to pay big bucks for their next home.

But the good news is prices are gradually starting to go down, but only ever so slightly.

Home prices in regional NSW have again fallen this spring selling season — for the fifth month in a row — according to the PropTrack Home Price Index, released on Saturday.

House prices in Newcastle and slightly down in September.

The Central Coast is one of the regional areas with the biggest drop of more than four per cent for the September month, but the median house price is still hefty, at more than $800,000.

As for the Newcastle/Hunter and Mid North Coast regions, although prices have seen a dip, annually prices are still way up on pre-pandemic levels.

There was more than a two per cent drop in house prices for September for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, while just a mere 0.17 per cent in the Hunter Valley and almost a 1.5 per cent drop for the Mid North Coast.

But looking at prices over the year, they’re still at increased levels.

In the Hunter Valley, still up 12 per cent annually, shortly followed by the Mid North Coast at 11.47 per cent, and Newcastle and Lake Macquarie at 3.45 per cent.

“Newcastle is continuing to outperform, we have seen prices start to fall and that’s consistent with conditions all across the country, but prices aren’t down as much as in other parts of the state,” Senior economist at Proptrack Paul Ryan said.

House prices on the Central Coast have dipped in September and annually. (AAP IMAGE / Troy Snook)

“Central Coast is a good example of conditions across the country as a whole, we saw a huge run up in prices over the pandemic period and now seeing the biggest price falls, so it’s a bit of a double edged sword from the effects of interest rates when they were cut.

“But still if you look at these regions, they’re still well up on pre-pandemic levels particularly places and not expecting prices to get back to pre-pandemic levels.”

Findings from the report state that in regional NSW prices fell slightly by 0.04 per cent in September, but are up almost 9 per cent over the year, almost 50 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

But Mr Ryan admits the regions are still performing well, with strong demand, despite recent interest rate rises slowly driving some prices south.

“We’re not seeing fewer people in the market, the people in the late stage of their buying journey has only decreased a little bit and that’s consistent with the strong economic growth the labour market conditions across the country,” he said.

Regional house prices in NSW have dropped slightly by 0.04%.

Senior Economist at PropTrack - Paul Ryan. Supplied.

“A lot of people that in the right stage of their life and have the right job security to purchase a house, they’ve just got less to spend and that’s the thing that is weighing on prices.”

Buyers from outside the regions starting to look beyond Sydney to purchase a home, also a factor.

“Hunter Valley, Newcastle has seen this pandemic resurgence and people are recognising these locations have all the things that have shifted in preferences since the pandemic, towards lifestyle, larger homes and having more space,” Mr Ryan added.

“People are more mobile, work from home is changing the dynamic and that is to detriment of local people that haven’t previously had to compete with people that are bringing higher Sydney incomes into the buying capacity.

Housing prices in regional NSW have dropped slightly but annually they’re still way up according to a PropTrack report. NSW / Housing / Real Estate

“Over the coming years, supply will hopefully respond and prices will not rise to the same extent like they have over the past couple of years.”

As for what the future holds, experts predict spring will keep the buyers biting, but to what extent that will influence the market, we’ll have to wait and see.

“We will be watching eagerly, October has genuinely a lot of housing activity as spring takes hold so it will be interesting to see we continue to have a more moderate price falls,” Mr Ryan said.

Region	GCCSA name	State	Quarterly growth (%) - All dwellings	Annual growth (%) - All dwellings	Median value ($) - All dwellings
Central Coast	Sydney	NSW	-4.07	-2.55	838000
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie	Rest of NSW	NSW	-2.16	3.45	818000
Mid North Coast	Rest of NSW	NSW	-1.49	11.47	702000
Hunter Valley exc Newcastle	Rest of NSW	NSW	-0.17	11.99	670000