You don't even need to be shopping for petrol to notice the jump in price lately. It feels like overnight we've gone from not too bad to… how is it pushing $2.50 to $2.70 a litre? But we fill up anyway, because what if it's even worse next week? At this rate, walking to appraisals might become part of the fitness plan.
And just to keep things interesting, the RBA has nudged rates up again this month by another 0.25% to 4.10%. Not a huge jump, but it's another reminder that things can shift quietly in the background. At the moment, it does feel like everything's going up.
The funny thing about prices is they always feel expensive in the moment, but give it a few years and what once felt outrageous starts to look like a bargain. I guess a lot of it comes down to perception.
Fun fact. Property values are up around 10% over the past year, petrol feels like it's up 30% in the last few weeks alone. At this rate, the drive to the open home might be the most expensive part of the whole process.
Which is probably good news for properties close to schools, shops and cafes, because being able to walk everywhere is starting to look like a serious upgrade.
Do you remember back in the late 90s or early 2000s, back when CDs were a thing, when you could pick up a basic three bedroom home for around $80,000 to $100,000? I do. I'd just finished school, delivering pizzas, thinking how the hell am I ever going to afford $100k for a house?
A few years later, around 2003 to 2005, those same homes crept up to around $120k to $130k, and I remember thinking I'd missed the boat. Prices had already gone too far, surely they couldn't keep going up forever. At the time, that felt expensive. And for context, petrol was around 70 to 80 cents, pushing towards $1 a litre, and we were all complaining about that too.
Fast forward a bit, even just to before COVID, and those same homes were selling just under the $500k mark. I remember thinking how crazy that was. Half a million dollars for a home in Caboolture. Also wishing I'd bought ten of them back when they were $100k.
And they just haven't stopped. That same type of property is now sitting around $700k to $750k, and a standard four bedroom, two bathroom home is getting close to $1 million, if it's not already there.
It's funny how it works. At every stage, it feels expensive in the moment, but looking back, it always feels cheap. We see it every day with buyers sitting on the sidelines, waiting for prices to drop, but by the time they're ready to move, the market has already shifted again.
As you can see, petrol prices and property prices aren't all that different. The best time to buy was yesterday, the next best time is today, and neither of them seem to be going down anytime soon. Five years from now, there's a good chance people will be saying exactly the same thing about today's prices.
If you'd like to chat about buying or selling property, or even just have a quick vent about petrol prices, we're always up for a chat.
P.S. If nothing else, at least this email didn't cost $2.70 to read, and neither does finding out what your property's worth. It'll cost us more than that to drive out and say hello, but that's a business expense we're happy to wear.