Crippling Australian house prices now locking out middle income earners

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PHOTO: Many aspiring first home buyers are starting to lose hope, but homeowners are cheering their appreciating investment. Picture: Brendan Radke

It’s not just low income earners who are struggling to save for a mortgage, with time needed to save for a deposit ballooning.

As house prices continue to creep higher, it’s not just low income earners who are struggling to save for a mortgage, with middle-class professionals also caught up in what has become a major economic problem.

CoreLogic’s monthly dwelling price index is due on Monday and CommSec tips it will show a rise of about 1.3 per cent.

Australian house prices to rise 22% this year and then ease off, economists say

That comes after a 1.5 per cent increase in September, which took Australian housing values an eye-watering 20.3 per cent higher over 12 months, bringing the median house value in the nation’s most expensive market – Sydney – to just over $1.3m.

Crunching CoreLogic and Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers, comparison website Finder this week estimated the average time to save for a deposit in the NSW capital at more than eight years.

But it believes the suburbs of Woollahra and Mosman are far more daunting to buy into, putting the average time needed to save for a deposit at a staggering 18-plus years.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has been saying for months it is keenly watching the overheated housing market, with Governor Philip Lowe worried if Australians started “borrowing ridiculous amounts of money” in a speculative way.