The R BA recently noted about four per cent of the nation’s residential properties changed hands last year — half what is was a decade ago. And transaction levels tend to dip when the market gets tougher.

Given the bloated stock levels tracked by groups like RP Data, Australian Property Monitors (Fairfax-owned) and SQM Research, it’s clear that many, many, many properties are being listed but not sold. That, of course, threatens to put downward pressure on prices.

But here’s the thing — the long-heralded crash hasn’t happened. House values dropped by 4.5 per cent nationally in the year to February, but there was no catastrophic across-the-board fall despite all the predictions there would be.

Property Values, Year to Feb 2012
	House	Unit
Sydney	-2.8%	-2.4%
Melbourne	-5.6%	-4.1%
Adelaide	-3.3%	-7.1%
Perth	-4.5%	-5.8%
Hobart	-9.6%	6.3%
Darwin	-4.9%	-6.1%
Canberra	0.8%	-4.3%
Brisbane	-7.9%	-5.0%
National	-4.5%	-3.5%
Source: RP Data-Rismark

Some areas will be protected from the worst effects of a collapse by virtue of their features, while others will inevitably been slammed due to the sum of their weaknesses.

There is no all-encompassing property market that can be said to be performing uniformly. It’s a fiction — a convenient narrative device.

Story credited to Twitter, Domain and The Age.

The bubble hasn't burst