09/09/2026
Home values fell again in August. That is five months in a row now.
The new Cotality numbers landed this week. Nationally values are down 0.9% for the month and sit 3.6% below the peak set in March. The spread is the part worth noticing: 93% of capital city suburbs recorded a fall through winter. This is not one or two soft pockets any more.
So the question in every message we are getting right now is the same one. Should I wait?
Here is the honest version of the maths, because the answer is not automatic.
Falling values help your deposit. If a place you would have paid $700,000 for is now $680,000, the 5% deposit you need drops from $35,000 to $34,000. Real, but small.
What moves your number far more is the other side of the ledger, and it went the wrong way this year. Three rate rises between February and May lifted the rate lenders test you at, and that quietly took a bite out of what anyone can borrow on the same income.
So waiting only wins if your deposit grows faster than your borrowing power shrinks. For most people it does not, because the deposit gain is measured in hundreds and the borrowing change is measured in tens of thousands.
Which is why the useful thing to do in a market like this is not to watch the index. It is to go and find out what your own number is today, and what would move it. That is the part you control.
Are you waiting to see where this lands, or looking anyway?
Source: Cotality Home Value Index, released September 2026, covering August.
Hunter Galloway. Australian Credit Licence 389328. Credit Representative 476903.
