In a sign of improving times, housing affordability continued to rise in the June 2012 quarter, making it six successful quarters in a row for improved affordability.
The HIA-Commonwealth Bank Housing affordability index jumped by 1.1 per cent to 10.6 per cent higher over the year.
Housing Industry Association's chief economist Dr Harley Dale says people should be optimistic that real estate is becoming affordable.
"Excluding the GFC period when interest rates dropped sharply, housing affordability is at its healthiest level since 2003.
"That is heartening news for Australian households. Now is a great time to buy for those who are financially set to take that decision," he said.
The unaffordability of housing in some areas is a source of weakness for the Australian economy, but these trends of affordability are starting to help.
The minister for the housing and homeless Brendan O'Connor has compared housing in Australia with Finland and has said that Australia is a lucky country with good government, seeing as Australia has a home ownership rate of 70 per cent compared with 58 per cent in Finland.
Other methods of ensuring long term housing affordability is that government should make better use of existing land and ensure costs don't blow out, according to the Housing Supply and Affordability Reform report.
