A LACK of stock and rising housing demand is creating a new FOMO - fear of missing out - trend in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
Overall, the number of listings of homes for sale in the region has fallen 4.8 per cent compared to one year ago, according to CoreLogic.
There are a handful of suburbs that are in demand even more where listing numbers have dropped substantially.
The Newcastle Herald has an interactive list of every suburb (above) for you to see how your suburb is faring according to CoreLogic data.
Hover over your suburb to see the results.
The data from CoreLogic examined 99 suburbs throughout Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, detailing the median value of dwellings (houses and units), as well as a comparison in the number of listings at the end of May 2023, compared to the same time last year.
Suburbs in the region that experienced the biggest drop in listing numbers include Tarro (80 per cent); Bolton Point (70 per cent), Macquarie Hills (57.1 per cent) and Barnsley, Birmingham Gardens, Blacksmiths and Fullerton Cove which all recorded falls of 50 per cent.
Troy Graham, from Dowling Property Newcastle and The Hunter, said affordability could be one of the factors driving demand in suburbs such as Tarro which holds a median house value of $565,908.
He said stock levels are extremely low in Tarro and the surrounding suburbs.
There are currently no properties listed for sale in Tarro.
"Tarro is an affordable suburb and it is predominantly about 90 per cent first-home buyers," Mr Graham said.
"As for lack of stock, we are not even getting the appraisals these days."
He said that a sense of FOMO could be creeping into the market and, in turn, pushing prices up.
"There are not many listings at the moment but there are still buyers out there and with the lack of supply what it does is it feels like it is artificially keeping the prices up," he said.
"If there is only one property in a suburb and there are five active buyers, the prices will stay up."
Other suburbs with low stock levels were Merewether Heights (-42.9 per cent), Dudley (-41.7 per cent) and Argenton, Carrington, Tingira Heights and Warabrook, all with declines of 40 per cent.
Simon Wall Property real estate agent Simon Wall has sold three properties in Merewether Heights this year.
He said the tightly-held suburb, which holds a median value of $1,501,568, had become even more difficult to buy into in recent months.
"At the moment there is only one home for sale in the whole suburb whereas there's usually an average of about three or four per month," Mr Wall said.
"That creates a lot of FOMO and then people become impatient and go making quick decisions after waiting six months for a house to come up in that suburb.
"At the moment FOMO is more around than it was in December, January and February.
"The market was a lot more cautious then and there are definitely more buyers wanting to make decisions now."
CoreLogic's head of research, Eliza Owen, said persistently low levels of available housing supply, rising housing demand and increased migration could be driving FOMO in the marketplace.
Low stock levels are also placing upwards pressure on the region's housing values.
"Several indicators point to more urgency setting in across the market over the past few months," Ms Owen said.
"Home values across the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie markets have risen for three consecutive months.
"Median selling times for dwellings across the region dipped slightly in the three months to May, sitting at 48 days from a recent high of 56 days through the March quarter.
"Data to June 2022 shows very favourable migration trends to the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region.
"There were almost 3,900 additional people who migrated to the area in the previous financial year, where the pre-COVID trend was closer to 2,100 per year.
"Assuming these trends have continued this year, where net overseas migration to Australia has jumped to an estimated 400,000, this is likely to have diverted higher levels of demand to Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in recent months."
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