Weekend auction tipping
Over the last 10 years the Australian population has experienced a "baby bounce", a term coined by well-known demographer Bernard Salt. The baby bounce occurred when generation X stopped partying and playing the field and looked at settling down to start a family.
The older gen X'rs are now in their 40s and when they first left home many of them moved from the middle suburbs where their baby boomer and post-war parents lived into the inner suburbs looking for lifestyle. Loving the lifestyle they purchased their first homes in the area, usually an apartment or little house. As they approached their 30s they began to settle down and started to look for a larger home where they could raise a family.
They had become addicted to the inner-city way of life and wanted this to continue. Many of the inner-eastern suburbs such as Hawthorn, Malvern and Camberwell were dominated by baby boomers and far too expensive for them, so they broadened their search looking for emerging inner-city enclaves.
Fairfield and the surrounding suburbs was one of the areas that had both the size of land they needed into the future while also allowing them to maintain their inner-city lifestyle.
Demand from young gen Xers who were taking the next steps in their careers and beginning to hit their incoming earning straps began to skyrocket in areas that has these characteristics and as a result capital growth took off. Fairfield is a great example of this trend where at the end of 2005 the median house price was $476,250 and by the end of 2010 it had climbed to $889,000, a massive 13.30% growth each year.
Although 71 Perry St Fairfield is unlikely to achieve that level of growth since its last sale it certainly does tick the boxes for the characteristics that these gen Xers are looking for.
Agent: Nelson Alexander
Quote: $1.1 million to $1.2 million
Last Sold: November 2003
Price: $697,000
Suburb median: $889,000
Five-year median growth: 13.3%
There's now a website, www.propertytycoon.com.au, where Melburnians can guess auction results, with no outlay. It's mostly about testing your market knowledge with a small cash prize as a sweetener.
If you think you know what it will sell for place a tip at Property Tycoon.