The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Friday, September 24, 2010

RBA confirms national dwelling price to income ratio is only 4.3x to 4.6x

The RBA has confirmed Rismark's national dwelling price-to-income ratio of 4.3x to 4.6x, as you can see from this chart in their latest RDP. We led the computation of an all-regions, all-dwellings ratio, and it is gratifying to see the RBA confirm it here. The capital cities ratio compares capital city dwelling prices to all regions' incomes, which is obviously not correct. As I have mentioned many times before, the RBA knows this (Ric Battellino was the latest to highlight the point), and attached the following footnote to the chart in question:

"The capital cities dwelling-price-to-income ratio presented here is biased upwards as the income measure includes regional areas, which typically have lower incomes than the capital cities. The nationwide measure is lower, though not available for the earlier history. In Australia, around 60 per cent of the value of the housing stock is located in the capital cities."