The guys at REIWA (Which I think stands for Real Estate Western Australia or something like that) have been doing another survey to look at the current state of the Perth housing market.

The Survey covers 75% of all sales so is probably as comprehensive as you can get it.

So, what does the survey tell us. Well, there has been a price drop in the average Perth house price during the last quarter by a very modest 1.5%.

This figure represents a fall of round $7000 on Perths median house price since the last quarter. The new Median house price in Perth is now $470,000.

As a wannabe home owner, this is good news for me but the report also goes onto say that the reduction in the average house price may be due to high first time buyer activity.

The government effectively did away with stamp duty for first home buyers in May this year which has resulted in first time buyer activity increasing by over 15%. As the majority of these purchases are in cheaper end of the market then the average price of Perth properties being purchased is skewed a little.

The other strong theme to come from this latest report is the sharp jump in rental prices for properties in the Perth metropolitan area.

The average rent for ‘units’ was $255 whilst an average house in an average suburb will set you back $280 per week.

As I mentioned a while back, the new letting fee seems to be one of the main culprits for the sharp increase as landlords pass this additional cost onto their tenants.

Speaking of rentals; the lease on the house we are currently renting is due to be reviewed soon. I can’t believe that we have been living in this house now for nearly 6 months.

Its looking like we might be extending the lease for another 6 months. The owners want us to go for a year but there is no way that we’ll still want to be renting in 12 months time (famous last words hey).

The house is great but with the new baby coming and all that I’m not looking forward to the heat in the summer time.

Last year it was very very hot in a number of the bedrooms (think midnight and temperatures indoors of over 25 Celsius)! We don’t have Air conditioning to any of the bedrooms so I might look at investing in a mobile AC unit to try and keep the front of the house a little more comfortable for all of us (especially the new Junior).

We could of course look at buying a new house before the end of this year, after all, whats a life without pressure hey?