Housing prices in one picturesque area on the NSW coast have dropped by up to $187,000 in the past year, according to new data revealing the beachside suburbs where values have fallen the most.
Home values across the 25 oceanfront suburbs — mostly located on the NSW Central Coast, Sydney’s Northern Beaches and the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria — fell between $32,000 and $187,000.
Buyers looking to snap up a cheaper beachside home can turn to Forrester Beach on the Central Coast, where prices had the biggest decline of 11.4 per cent to $1.46 million in 2023, according to PopTrack data.
Other areas include Wamberal and Avoca Beach on the Central Coast, where prices dropped $135,900 and $89,600 year-on-year to an average median value of $1,657,000 and $1,609,000 respectively.
Prospective buyers in Victoria stand to save the most in McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula, where the median home value decreased by $79,000 to $1.13 million.
These areas were very popular during the pandemic as lifestyle locations offering tree and sea-change escapes boomed, explained PopTrack senior economist Angus Moore.
“They were among the strongest performing regions for their respective cities,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
“Mornington Peninsula massively outperformed the rest of Melbourne, and the Central Coast was the strongest growing part of Sydney across the pandemic.”
The decline in prices can be largely attributed to interest rates rising coming out of the pandemic, with housing affordability at its worst level in at least 30 years.
