WHEN freshly unemployed Australians were lining up outside Centrelink and the sharemarket was crashing last year, it would have been a brave pundit who predicted an imminent real estate boom.
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And yet, 12 months later, here we are.
The median house price in Sydney rose $100,000 in the past three months, according to a recent report, and the market in Bathurst, as a quick flick through the real estate guide will confirm, is having a strong run as well.
The overall causes, we are told, include the record low interest rates (which are set to stay that way for years) and the Federal Government's economic stimulus, which didn't just put a floor in a crashing economy, but, in some cases, put more money in pockets than was there before.
IN NEWS AROUND BATHURST:
One of the other big factors, though, has been a lack of houses coming on to the market and that must be sending a shiver up a few spines.
Increasingly panicked buyers bidding up the price on homes because they don't want to miss out is a recipe for a real estate bubble - and that's no good for anyone.
Having avoided an economic armageddon due to this once-in-a-century virus, it would be a shame if Australia stumbled, in later years, into a new problem of sky-high mortgage debt combining with a period of interest rates on the rise.
Leaving aside the dire scenarios, the real estate market in general remains a riddle wrapped in an enigma - as it always is.
For those who have no interest in selling, any increase in the value of their property is of academic interest only - nice to know, but untested.
For those who do have an interest in selling, but want to buy an equivalent property in the same market, they are likely to see their gains erased by their next purchase.
The big winners in the current market would be those cashing in a Sydney home and buying in the bush, where they can get so much more for their money, but it's not always one-way traffic when it comes to the NSW capital.
For those selling up in the country and heading to the big smoke, the sums will not be adding up at all.
As ever, the numbers don't tell the full story when it comes to real estate's ebbs and flows.
For every champagne-popping seller, there's a buyer with a new bank loan. It was ever thus.
