PHOTO: Auction clearance rates have increased in Sydney and Melbourne to levels consistent with price rises. ABC News: Angela Lavoipierre

There are further signs Australia’s worst housing downturn in modern history may be drawing to an end, with CoreLogic’s monthly index showing further modest price rises in July.

Key points:

  • National housing prices were flat in July, due to a fall in regional markets, but capital city prices were up
  • Five out of eight capital cities posted modest price increases last month
  • CoreLogic’s Tim Lawless says he does not think this recovery phase is going to be a rapid one

The company’s hedonic home value index showed a 0.1 per cent rise across the combined capital cities last month but nationally, including regional markets, prices were flat.

CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless said, nationally, housing prices “may have found a floor in July” and it was the big east coast markets that were generally posting gains.

“We’re not really seeing signs of a recovery just yet, but absolutely we are seeing housing prices stabilising,” he said.

“We did see values rise last month in Sydney and Melbourne, in July we’ve actually seen that become a little more widespread — Sydney values are up 0.2 per cent, as are Melbourne values and Brisbane values, and also in Hobart and Darwin we’ve seen a subtle rise in values.

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