Houses across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie are an estimated 47 per cent less affordable than they were just two years ago.
The latest ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability Report shows the typical Newcastle dwelling, including houses and units, cost 9.7 times the median annual household income in the June quarter.
Since June, the Newcastle median dwelling value has rocketed from $718,000 to $812,000.
Assuming incomes have not climbed considerably since then, the typical dwelling now costs 11 times what households earn in a year.
This marks an increase of 47 per cent from June 2019, when the typical house cost 7.5 times the median household income.
Over the same period, the time it takes to save a 20 per cent deposit on a typical housing mortgage has ballooned from 10 years to 14.6.
Newcastle and east Lake Macquarie, with a 9.7 value-to-income ratio, were among the least affordable areas in regional NSW in the June quarter, though Great Lakes (11.6), the Byron Bay area (15.3), Port Macquarie (10.4), Wollongong (11.5) and the Southern Highlands (13.3) were even less so.
The property value-to-income ratio was 8.7 in east Lake Macquarie, 7.7 in Maitland, 9.5 in Port Stephens and 4.8 in the Upper Hunter.
The Newcastle Herald reported on Friday that regional NSW was now the third most expensive real estate market in the country, relative to incomes, after Sydney and Melbourne.
Newcastle and Lake Macquarie's median dwelling value of $812,000 in November was $24,000 higher than Melbourne's.
The median value of a free-standing house in the city has jumped $200,000 in a year to $844,000.
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