Melbourne house prices fall $33,381 in the steepest quarterly drop since 2022
Auction clearance rates hit their lowest since 2020 and close to one in seven Melbourne auctions was withdrawn before it ran.
Melbourne’s median house price fell 3.1 per cent in the June quarter, a drop of $33,381 to $1,041,205.
It is the steepest quarterly decline in almost four years and the second consecutive quarterly fall, according to Domain’s June Quarter 2026 House Price Report.
Underneath the median, the market has largely stopped clearing.
Auction clearance rates fell to 52 per cent, the lowest since September 2020.
Withdrawals rose to 14.7 per cent, the highest since August 2021 — close to one auction in seven pulled before it ran.
Buyers have more to choose from than at any point since 2014.
Sellers are taking longer and discounting more.
That is not a crash. It is a standoff.
Annual growth has turned negative for the first time in 15 months, down 0.4 per cent or $4,466.
Melbourne values now sit 4.2 per cent below their December 2025 peak. The median has given back $45,189 in six months.
Units fell too, down 0.05 per cent to $587,137, a second straight quarterly decline.
Nationally the run is over. Combined capital city house prices fell 1.4 per cent and units 1.2 per cent, the first quarterly decline in more than three years and the end of the longest uninterrupted stretch of growth since 2012-15.
Sydney led it down, off 3.3 per cent or $59,884 to $1.73 million.
Elsewhere the market is still moving. Perth is up 22.5 per cent over the year. Darwin units rose 5 per cent in the quarter. Adelaide house prices hit a record $1.125 million.
Melbourne is one of three capitals where both houses and units fell.
The median is still $1.04 million.
A household needs the same deposit it needed in December, in a market where the seller would rather pull the listing than take what is being offered.
That is what a $33,381 fall buys you. Nothing you can move into.