The monthly numbers get the headlines, but the annual figures tell the more useful story. Sydney values are down 1.4 per cent over the past month and 3.1 per cent over the year. Melbourne is down 1.1 per cent over the month, a smaller monthly fall than Sydney's, but 3.6 per cent over the year, a bigger annual fall.
That gap matters for how agents in each city should be framing the conversation with vendors right now. A Sydney vendor pointing to it is only down slightly this month is technically correct and strategically misleading, the annual trend is still firmly negative. A Melbourne vendor asking why their agent is not more worried about a single soft month is missing that their city's underlying trend is actually the weaker of the two right now.
Neither market is in freefall, and neither number supports the doom framing that shows up in general media coverage of the property crash. But agents quoting monthly figures to reassure vendors, or annual figures to create urgency, are both cherry picking. The honest conversation uses both.
Pick the number that suits the story you want to tell, and a vendor will eventually find the one you left out.
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