The proportion of homes sold for less than they cost has fallen, but whether your home is worth less than you paid for it depends on when you bought it.
The "Pain and Gain" report from CoreLogic RP Data shows the proportion of homes sold at a loss in the final quarter of 2014 was 8.6 per cent - about one in 12.
But fewer than one in 20 - 4.9 per cent - of homes bought before January 2008 were sold for less than their purchase price.
Three in 20 homes bought since then have gone for less than they cost.
The chance of making a loss on a home sale varies enormously between cities and regions too.
In the booming Sydney market, only 2.4 per cent - fewer than one in 20 - of sales are made at below cost, but in regional areas, especially in Queensland, that proportion rises to more than 20 per cent, or one in five.
THE BIGGEST AND SMALLEST LOSERS
Most sales made at a loss:
- Mackay (Qld) (34.7%)
- Fitzroy (Qld) (29.6%)
- Townsville (Qld) (29.1%)
- Wide Bay (Qld) (28.2%)
- Cairns (Qld) (23.6%)
- Outback (Qld) (22.9%)
- South East (Tas) (22.7%)
- Gold Coast (Qld) (21.4%)
- Wheat Belt (Qld) (21.4%)
- Outback (WA) (21.3%)
Fewest sales made at a loss:
- Sydney (NSW) (2.4%)
- Illawarra (NSW) (2.5%)
- Toowoomba (Qld) (2.7%)
- Newcastle and Lake Macquarie -(NSW) (3.4%)
- Perth (WA) (5.5%)
- Geelong (Vic) (5.6%)
- Melbourne (Vic) (5.6%)
- Ballarat (Vic) (6.5%)
- Far West and Orana (NSW) (6.9%)
- New England and North West (NSW) (7.4%)
Source: CoreLogic RP Data Pain and Gain report.
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