Newcastle News

The Hunter’s real estate market has bounced back with scores of Hunter suburbs recording double-digit growth last year.

New figures compiled for the Newcastle Herald by Australian Property Monitors show that, overall, property in Port Stephens recorded the strongest growth, climbing 9.6per cent last year.

Median sales prices climbed by 8.4per cent in the Newcastle area last year, 7.69per cent in Lake Macquarie, 6.2per cent in Cessnock and 4.1per cent in Maitland.

The mining downturn, though, made for tougher times in the Upper Hunter where median values dropped 8.7per cent in Singleton and remained reasonably stable in Muswellbrook.

Of note, the median house price at Newcastle’s Bar Beach climbed to a staggering $1.25million last year, almost 14per cent higher than the previous year. It was a similar tale in neighbouring Merewether where the median price climbed 18.7per cent, to a new median price of $810,000.

Incredibly, Morisset Park and Caves Beach both recorded median house price increases of more than 30per cent in 2013.

Such news is never good for those trying to enter the region’s real estate market, with first home buyers being pushed further west to find affordable entry-level prices.

But on the positive side, investors are flooding back to the market and agents are predicting the latest boom will open up more, and possibly cheaper, rental stock.

Source; Newcastle Herald