SA named Australia’s least affordable state in shock new data

Forget the Festival State, South Australia has a new title, though it’s hardly one we’ll be keen on promoting. According to realestate.com.au’s Housing Affordability Index report, SA became the least affordable state in Australia last financial year, as a median-priced household earning about $103,000 a year, could afford just 7 per cent of all homes sold across SA in the past year. To put that into perspective – it is the first time any state has eclipsed NSW since the 2011 financial year. According to the report, housing affordability is at its worst level on record, with households across the whole income distribution able to afford the smallest share of homes since the 1995 financial year, when records began. PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore pictured Even a high-income earner (those at the 80th percentile) could only afford about 50 per cent of all homes to sell last year, while low-income earners – those at the 30th percentile – could afford to but around 2 per cent. The report said strong home price growth across SA – with prices having more than doubled since the start of the pandemic – had sharply driven affordability lower. “That rapid deterioration in housing afford...