Wednesday, April 13, 2011 9:16 PM

Housing Denial in Australia Feeds Off Same Myths We Heard in the US

It is amusing to watch Australian analyst after analyst cite the same silly myths regarding housing that we saw in the united states. First consider a sampling of the nonsense we heard in the US.

• There is no national housing bubble
• There is a housing shortage in Florida, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, etc.
• There is never a better time to buy than now
• Home price cannot possibly drop where Boomers are moving
• Seattle housing will not drop because the local economy is strong

Florida was ground zero in the US bubble bursting and for the next two years we heard things like.

• Las Vegas is not Miami
• Phoenix is not Las Vegas or Miami
• San Diego is not Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Miami
• Chicago is not San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Miami
• Seattle is not Chicago, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Miami

For varying reasons every city thought "it's different here". Yet the bubble bust spread from city to city and eventually engulfed the entire country.

Similar denial runs deep in Australia.

Please consider Australia Housing Cracks Emerge Across Queensland Coast http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-1 ... merge.html

Apartment prices in the luxury beachside Australian town of Noosa Heads have tumbled by a fifth since 2008 as cracks emerge in a housing market that’s so far escaped the rout seen in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland.

The median apartment price in the tourism and retiree town 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Brisbane has slumped 21 percent in three years to A$570,000 ($594,000), according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Sales have more than halved across Queensland state’s Sunshine coast, home to “Crocodile Hunterâ€