Housing losing strength

A FURTHER decline in housing finance figures shows the housing sector is starting to peter out, an economist says.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today showed housing finance by volume fell 1.2 per cent in March, seasonally adjusted.

That follows a sharp fall of 7.2 per cent in February, adjusted.

The modest March fall was in line with economists expectations.

"We saw a lot of strength on the back of the first home buyers scheme in housing finance last year and there's signs that they are starting to peter out now," St George senior economist Tim Crawford said.

Mr Crawford said the housing sector as a whole would now continue to slide over the next six months.

"We're seeing it moderating, but the thing to note is that, maybe the moderation we have seen in the past couple of months wasn't quite as fast as we initially had been anticipating."

He said strong activity is house pricing had provided the sector with some resilience.

Source: http://www.news.com.au, May 10 2002