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Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced policies to level the playing field for first-home buyers, but so far affordability has got worse. Picture: Martin Ollman<\/p>\n
Federal government promises to \u201clevel the playing field\u201d for home buyers are looking more threadbare by the month: even with prices falling, buying a home has become harder.<\/p>\n
And now it\u2019s not just singles being frozen out but ordinary couples too, new analysis of median prices and interest rates has revealed.<\/p>\n
The figures from Compare the Market paint a bruising picture of a housing market where lower prices haven\u2019t delivered relief, because bigger mortgages and rate hikes have swallowed any benefit.<\/p>\n
Couples on typical salaries were now only able to afford a median-priced property in just 38.61 per cent of suburbs nationally over September, according to the Compare the Market study.<\/p>\n
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If RBA governor Michele Bullock announces another rate hike, it could freeze couples on $135,000 out of the market. Picture: Martin Ollman\/NewsWire<\/p>\n
This was down sharply from 53.63 percent of suburbs a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Couples on a combined income of about $135,000 a year, the median household income in some areas, could afford a home in only 5 per cent of the market nationally.<\/p>\n
And with the Reserve Bank of Australia widely expected to announce another rate hike on Melbourne Cup Day, home buyers on this income tier could have their choices hollowed further.<\/p>\n
MORE: Brisbane named nation\u2019s least affordable capital<\/a><\/p>\n