Housing affordability – get the facts right and the right facts

I continue to wonder why the super-charged debate on Australian housing is so devoid of reliable facts and analysis. So much of the debate relies on privately manufactured snake oil, made up of unproven survey results, pretend numbers, factual errors and sweeping generalisations that fit into the “OMG I’ll never be able to buy a house” narrative that generates lots of clicks and unleashes pent up anger. The media, or a large part of it, love these ‘crises’ and report the snake oil without doing any background checking or research to see whether the report they are covering is in any way accurate. 

So little of the news, reporting and commentary makes reference to the comprehensive, in depth, reliable, considered and unbiased research of the RBA.

While house prices are not a direct policy aim of the RBA, distortions in the housing market can have consequences for the marco economy, inflation and financial stability, which is why it spends a lot of time researching the issue and, thankfully for those with an open mind, the RBA published much of its findings.