By Sarah Crawford
sarah [dot] crawford [at] dailymercury [dot] com [dot] au
House prices in some popular Mackay suburbs have fallen but the outlying areas of Walkerston and Sarina are moving ahead in leaps and bounds, latest figures from the Department of Natural Resources and Water have shown.
For the 2008 March quarter, the median house price at Walkerston shot up 32.1% to $426 000.
In Sarina, the median house price went up 29.9% to $493 500.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) Mackay zone chairman Barry Lynam said the house price hike was due to new estates popping up in Walkerston and Sarina. Also people were interested in moving out of Mackay for good buys.
Overall the median house price for the Mackay local government area increased by 3.1% in the last quarter, to $368 500 but some parts of the Northern Beaches as well as North, South and West Mackay dropped slightly. Eimeo houses dropped 4.3%; Bucasia was down 1.3%; Mount Pleasant fell 3.8%; West Mackay dropped 4.9% and Ooralea was down 11.7%.
Ray White Sales Manager Shaun Dobbins said people were beginning to drop the prices on their houses in those areas because they were taking longer to sell.
"Now there are indications that people are more aware that you can't just put any sort of price on it. It is not at the point of being a buyer's market, but buyers are bringing it back. Some vendors are optimistic though and are still hanging on," Mr Dobbins said.
Mr Dobbins said houses in flood-hit areas were also proving more difficult to sell.
Mr Lynam said house sales were slower at the beginning of the year - after the federal election and the interest rate rise - but demand was now increasing.
"Enquiries are certainly starting to pick up in the $300 000 to $400 000 price bracket. First home buyers are out there looking and this is likely to pick up following the stamp duty cut announced in the State Budget," he said.
But Mr Lynam warned people against trying to use the new figures to attempt to foretell future housing prices. "You can't get too caught up in the figures - they only show movements in the housing market over three months," he said.
Mr Lynam said he was optimistic for the future and believed the mining boom would continue to underpin the housing market in Mackay.
"The outlook for the area is very positive. The coal mines are really a pot of gold for the region and ensure the market should perform very nicely over the next eight to 10 years," he said.
Taken from The Daily Mercury June 2008