The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the Average Weekly Earnings for May 2010.
A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald discusses the increase in house prices from 1993 to 2010, a 17 year period, in which the average Sydney medium house prices rose 233% from $188,050 in 1993 to $626,444 in 2010.
It is interesting that they used a 17 year period from 1993, which was the low point of housing prices following the recession of the early 1990's, rather than a 20 year period. More recent data indicates that the the average annual rate of growth is around 5%.
Figures showing a overall capital growth rate of 233% over a 17 period are not very useful in any type of forecasting the benefits or costs of owning an investment property. I have calculated the average annual rate of growth of the figures published in the Sydney Morning Herald which show an annual growth of the Sydney average medium house price over the 17 year period between 1993 and 2010 of 7.3%.
| Medium House Price | Medium House Price | 17 Year Change | Annual Compounding Rate | |
| (July Qtr 1993) | (July Qtr 2010) | |||
| Inner West | $ 208,000 | $ 870,000 | 318% | 8.8% |
| City & East | $ 290,000 | $1,210,000 | 317% | 8.8% |
| Northern Beaches | $ 277,500 | $1,025,000 | 269% | 8.0% |
| Lower North | $ 368,000 | $1,330,000 | 261% | 7.9% |
| Sydney average | $ 188,050 | $ 626,444 | 233% | 7.3% |
| South West | $ 120,000 | $ 397,000 | 231% | 7.3% |
| South West | $ 218,000 | $ 701,000 | 222% | 7.1% |
| West | $ 127,000 | $ 405,250 | 219% | 7.1% |
| Upper North Shore | $ 250,000 | $ 793,250 | 217% | 7.0% |
| Canterbury Bankstown | $ 166,000 | $ 500,000 | 201% | 6.7% |
