In the United Kingdom the fall was smaller – at about 15–20 per cent. In Australia, the decline since the peak has been about 5 to 10 per cent, depending on the region. There are of course prominent examples of particular localities or even individual dwellings where price falls have been much larger.
Scaled to measures of income, Australian dwelling prices on a national basis have in fact declined and are now about where they were in 2002 (Graph 5). That is, housing has become more “affordable”. Four or five years ago we supposedly had a housing affordability “crisis”. Now it seems that the problem some people fear is that of housing becoming even more affordable.