Peter Martin (Economics Reporter, SMH), who along with his wife have been trying to make sense of the current property market, writes that the research paper Housing Prices in Australia: 1970 to 2003 “has done anyone interested in house prices a huge favour by putting together reliable data for each Australian city”

The article, ‘Stay grounded: prices haven’t hit the floor’ (SMH, 20 January 2005, p17), highlighted the benefits of the thorough research that Peter and Demi had undertaken in providing hard facts on which to make property purchasing decisions. The research identifies and leverages the most valuable and reliable data sources available. Once indexed for inflation and correlated, the data reveals strong national trends, clearly identifying the four significant price booms and subsequent down turns over the past 30 years. Access to the empirical research data provides a solid benchmark against which to compare industry analysts’ and real estate agents’ forecasts and speculations.

While the current research paper does not attempt to explain the reasons for the property market price fluctuations, a further article due to be published soon in the Economist, discusses this aspect.