Million-Dollar Homes in Sydney Highlights RBA’s Dilemma
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The dilemma for Australia’s central bankers has become starker: the median asking price for a Sydney house topped A$1 million ($870,000) for the first time even as the national jobless rate climbed to an 11-year high.
Prime mortgage arrears below 1 percent mean owners are having less difficulty paying back home loans than at any time in the past seven years, according to Standard & Poor’s, even while unemployment rose to 6.2 percent. In Sydney, central bank stimulus helped drive a 23 percent surge in the median asking price for a stand-alone dwelling over the past three years, SQM Research Pty. data shows.