Mixed review for Melbourne real estate

HOUSE sales are down but prices are up, a State Government report into property sales across Victoria has found.

According to the Victorian Property Sales Report, the median house price in metropolitan Melbourne jumped 4.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2010.

However, the number of houses sold dropped 6.1 per cent from the September quarter and slumped a massive 23.3 per cent from the same period in 2009.

Just eight locations across Melbourne recorded more than 100 sales in the December quarter, with Berwick (181), Frankston (167) and Pakenham (158) leading the charge.

Million-dollar suburb Caulfield recorded just five sales for the quarter.

The most affordable suburb was Melton, which had a median house price of $254,300 – a drop of 2.2 per cent from the previous quarter, but a rise of 13 per cent from the previous year.

At the other end of the scale, Toorak had the highest median price of $2.971 million – an increase of 27.2 per cent from the September quarter, but a drop of 1 per cent from the previous year.

Highest growth areas were in the million-dollar suburbs of Armadale, up to $1.32 million, a 39.3 per cent rise on the previous quarter, and South Yarra ($1.34 million) a rise of 38 per cent.

The biggest losers were new western suburb Williams Landing, the median dropping 27 per cent from the previous quarter to $407,500, and Carlton, which dropped 22.5 per cent (from $1.05 million in September 2010 to $814,000 in December 2010).