It would be easy to assume, based on recent media headlines, that the property market is in the doldrums almost across Australia. But that’s not the case.

A recent CoreLogic report confirms that there is no shortage of top performing suburbs.

CoreLogic identified 50 of the nation’s best performing suburbs. Nine of the top ten are located in Victoria, and many are suburbs of Melbourne, where the city’s overall value has dropped 3.4% in the last year.

As a guide, Kilmore, located about 40 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, topped CoreLogic’s list of Australia’s out-performing suburbs with 12-month price gains of 32.5%. In Darley, near Bacchus Marsh, values have risen 30.2% over the past year.

The regional city of Geelong romped home into third place with 12-month price gains of 29%; 44.4% in the last three years; and 59.0% over the last five years.

The only top ten high performing suburb not located in Victoria is the outer Hobart suburb of Bridgewater, where home values have climbed 26% in the last 12 months, even out-doing Hobart’s overall price growth of 9.3% over the same period.

The point of all this is that city-wide medians, so often reported in the media, do not tell the full picture, notes Angus Raine, Executive Chairman Raine & Horne.

Again referring to CoreLogic data, home values in Sydney have dipped 6.1% in the past year. But that doesn’t mean every home has experienced this sort of price fall. As is often the case in a cooler market, it is the top end of the market that has dipped the most.  Sydney’s most expensive quarter of the market is down 8.4% while the least expensive quarter has seen prices drop by only 3.3%.

The variation in performance across different market segments is even more significant in Melbourne. The top quarter of the market has seen values reduce by 6.7% over the past year while the cheapest quarter has recorded a 4.1% annual gain in values.

What does this mean for you as a buyer or seller?

The importance of local knowledge can never be underestimated when it comes to buying a home or investment property, according to Angus.  “Get to know your market. Talk to your local Raine & Horne team, and take note of how much properties are selling for. It’s not hard to get a feel for how the market is moving in your patch, and it’s worth the effort to understand how prices in your neighbourhood are moving.”

He added, “Broad brush figures like city-wide medians can be great for measuring long-term trends. But they don’t always reflect the mirror on your piece of Australia. Only local insights can do that. Medias obsession with Auction clearance rates is not a true indicator of the market at large.”