Housing signals worth watching

Headline house prices are a lagging measure. By the time they move noticeably, the underlying shifts have usually been visible for months in other places.

Listings volumes, days-on-market, the share of sales going to first-home buyers, build-cost indexes and new dwelling consents all move earlier. So does the mood of agents, builders and mortgage advisers, who tend to feel the turn before it shows up in the data.

Rents are their own story. They respond more directly to migration, wages and the available stock in a given suburb than to interest rates alone. A street can be flat on prices and tight on rentals at the same time.

Our property coverage will keep returning to these quieter indicators, because they are the ones households actually plan their lives around.