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Housing affordability is at the best level in almost a decade, but the effect is not being felt evenly.
Cotality has released data that shows the national median house value had fallen to 7.2 times the annual median household income at the end of last year.
It was still above the long-term average of 6.8 but was the lowest, apart from a brief drop to 7.2 in 2019, since it was 7 in 2016.
Cotality chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said prices had been flat or falling for the past few years, and were still down 18 percent from the peak.
"We've had incomes go up over that period and, in the last couple of years since sort of mid-24, interest rates have come down too.
"Across all of those measures there's been a pretty big improvement and one th
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