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There are signs Australia's housing slump is slowing down after nine months of falling property prices, according to new research released today.
CoreLogic's home-value index fell by 0.14 per cent in February from January, mainly driven by limited housing stock.
It was the smallest monthly decline since May 2022, when the Reserve Bank of Australia began its nine consecutive rises in interest rates.
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CoreLogic experts say with interest rates drawing closer to their peak, house values are stabilising, which could see prices bottoming out.
The research showed a 0.3 per cent spike in Sydney home values drove the bottoming out of price declines Australia.
But every capital city, except Hobart, recorded housing values fall by less than half a percent during February. Prices in Hobart declined by 1.4 per cent in Hobart.
CoreLogic's research director, Tim Lawless, said the stabilisation in housing values over the month coincides with consistently low advertised supply levels and a rise in property sales at weekend auctions.
New capital city property listings are now 17 per cent lower than a year ago and 11.9 per cent below the previous five-year average, he said.
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"This trend towards a below average flow of new listings has been evident since September last year, coinciding with a loss of momentum in the rate of value decline," Lawless said.
Auction clearance rates also bounced back through February, with the capital city weighted average reaching the high 60 per cent range through the second half of the month.
Sydney clearance rates rose to above 70 per cent in the week ending February 19, the first time since February 2022.
But CoreLogic cautioned the apparent bottoming out in the housing market might be short lived, with the RBA flagging further interest rate hikes over the coming months.
"Arguably the full impact of the aggressive rate hiking cycle is yet to play out," Lawless said.
And the RBA estimates about one million mortgage holders are due to face the "mortgage cliff", when they leave very low fixed interest rates to higher variable rates later this year.
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