Homes ‘buck’ trend

By Jade Lawton
PAKENHAM homes have increased in value, bucking the state-wide trend of falling house prices in the face of the global economic crisis.
According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV), the current median house price in Pakenham is $305,900, up from September 2008 when the median price was $295,000.
Median house prices fell 0.9 per cent across the state for the December quarter.
The REIV determines the median price of suburbs through examining a series of sales arranged from lowest to highest value.
The middle, or median sale price, is used so that the averages are not affected by a couple of unusually high or low prices.
Meanwhile, in Berwick, houses have shed an average of $20,000 in value, falling from a peak of around $390,000 last March to $370,000 for the 2008 December quarter.
Suburbs with median house prices under half a million dollars, including Pakenham, mostly held their value, while luxury homes in Brighton, Camberwell, Balwyn and Kew lost up to 12 per cent of their value.
REIV chief executive Enzo Raimondo said the economy had had a softer impact than expected.
“The interest rate reductions late last year, together with the first home owner’s incentives, have helped to soften the effect,” he said.
Sales manager of Pakenham’s Alex Scott Real Estate, Peter Deering, warned the worst was yet to come in the housing market.
“The top end of the market had died,” he said.
“Pakenham has great opportunities for first home buyers, the place is bubbling – it’s a nice place to live, affordable and there has been plenty of interest.”
“But people everywhere will have to pull in the reins a bit – it’s going to get tough before it gets better.”