House prices fell in all Melbourne regions in past year, with Essendon the worst performer: Residex

It's no wonder Residex boss John Edwards is worried about Melbourne. House prices have gone backwards throughout Melbourne for the year to March 2012, new Residex figures reveal.

Every Melbourne region had negative house price growth for the year ending March 2012, which is in stark contrast with the year to March 2011, when every Melbourne region had positive house price growth.

The greatest change was in the outer-northern Melbourne suburb of Meadow Heights, which went from recording 12.1% growth in the year to March 2011 to house price falls of 8.53% in the 12 months to March 2012. The median house prices in Meadow Heights is $459,500.

The next biggest disparity was in Essendon, which recorded house price growth of 11.53% in the year to March 2011, according to Residex. Over the year to March 2012 house prices fell 8.75% to $584,000.

House prices also fell in most Melbourne localities in the last month, with Brunswick (up 3.13%) the strongest performer. The median house price in Brunswick is $545,000. The worst falls were experienced in Essendon, where house prices fell 1.9% in the past month.

Essendon was also the worst performer in the past quarter, with house prices falling 4.98%. The strongest suburb in the past quarter was the inner-north suburb of Fitzroy, where house prices increased 1.09% to $618,000.

In the past decade house prices have grown more or less uniformly across Melbourne, with weakest-performing Essendon (house prices up 6.02%) not wildly divergent from best-performer Fitzroy (up 8.13%).