With just 316 residents and only one road, a tiny town in the outback has been revealed as the cheapest place in the county to buy a home.
The median price for homes in the dusty mining community of Andamooka, 600km north of Adelaide, is just $20,000 – less than the cost of a new Holden Astra Sedan.
The figure pales in comparison to the median price of $821,438 in Australia’s most expensive city, Sydney.
This graphic shows the top five places in Australia with the lowest median house price, according to CoreLogic Data. The map compares these prices to the price in each state capital in the country. The place with the lowest median is Andamooka which is 600km north of Adelaide, South Australia
The median price for homes in the dusty mining community of Andamooka (pictured), 600km north of Adelaide, is just $20,000 – less than the cost of a new Holden Astra Sedan. House prices in the town are almost entirely dependent on the health of the mining industry in the Roxby Downs nearby
Adamooka (pictured), which has just 21 days of rain each year, was established as an Opal mining settlement in the 1930s. The earliest miners lived in rough dugouts driven into the side of a slope – and many homes there now are simple structures on stumps built into hills
The second cheapest place to buy a home is Balgal Beach, a suburb north of Townsville, Queensland where the median price is $25,000, according to CoreLogic data.
In third place is the town of Curlwaa on the New South Wales-Victoria border where the median price is $30,000.
Andamooka, which has just 21 days of rain each year, was established as an Opal mining settlement in the 1930s.
The earliest miners lived in rough dugouts driven into the side of a slope – and many homes there now are simple structures built into hills.
Homes currently for sale in Andamooka include a $20,000 run-down house (pictured) with one bedroom and one bathroom, built aside a mound of muddy earth
$40,000 can buy this quaint one-bedroom shack with space for car next to the town’s one sealed road
At the top of Andamooka’s range is a six-bedroom house (pictured) with two bathrooms and space for three cars on sale for $255,000
Homes currently for sale include a $20,000 run-down house with one bedroom and one bathroom, built aside a mound of muddy earth.
Double that figure can buy a quaint one-bedroom shack with space for a car next to the town’s one sealed road.
At the top of the range is a six-bedroom house with two bathrooms and space for three cars on sale for $255,000.
The second cheapest place to buy a home is Balgal Beach (pictured), a suburb north of Townsville, Queensland where the median average sale price is $25,000, according to Core Logic data
Collarenberi (pictured) in New South Wales has the fourth lowest median sale price of $35,000 according to Core Logic Data
House prices in the town are almost entirely dependent on the health of the mining industry in the Roxby Downs nearby.
After a downturn last year, prices in the town fell 42.2 per cent.
They were already low having dropped 85.7 per cent in the past five years, according to CoreLogic data on homes and units.
Last year, a three-room shack there sold for just $10,000.
Andamooka sales specialist Sonia Lawrie of Andrews Property said there was hope for homeowners that prices would pick up soon.
In third place is the town of Curlwaa (pictured) on the New South Wales-Victoria border where the median price is $30,000
‘What happens in Roxby Downs effects Andamooka as many of the locals work out there,’ Ms Lawrie told The Advertiser.
‘At the moment, house prices in Andamooka are quite low but they have been slowly going back up. The Roxby market is also still quite slow but last year, we did see an increase in value of about $40,000.
‘It may not seem that much, considering how much prices dropped off when they announced the opal cutting wasn’t happening, but the positive thing is that prices are moving up for owners.’
It comes amid fears house prices in Australia’s biggest cities could plunge by 40 per cent in the worst crash since the 1890s depression.
Dolphin Heads (pictured) in Queensland has a median sale price of $51,0000, ranking it as the sixth cheapest place in the country
LF Economics founder Lindsay David predicts Sydney and Melbourne median house prices will plummet by 15 to 20 per cent in 2019 alone in his new report, Let The Bloodbath Begin.
‘On top of the falls we have already seen, it’s going to be a very nasty shock to the system and economy,’ he tweeted.
Since peaking in July 2017, Sydney’s median house price has slumped by 13.7 per cent, even though interest rates are at a record low of 1.5 per cent, CoreLogic data showed.
The downturn during the past 18 months is even worse than the 9.6 per cent drop that occurred between 1989 and 1991, during a period that began with 19 per cent interest rates and ended with a recession.
LF Economics’ prediction of a 40 per cent real estate plunge is significantly worse than the ANZ bank’s forecast of a 20 per cent plunge.
It would mark the worst property downturn in Australia since the 1890s depression, then sparked by economic uncertainty in the United Kingdom, even though unemployment in 2019 sits at just five per cent.
House prices in Australia’s biggest cities (Sydney pictured) are expected to plunge by 40 per cent in the worst crash since the 1890s Depression
Last month a prominent analyst told Daily Mail Australia ‘the risks are there’ for Australia to suffer a recession.
‘Australia will struggle this year,’ said Shane Oliver at AMP Capital.
‘This is mostly due to homegrown factors such as the downturn in the housing market, the mining investment downturn and uncertainty over energy regulation and in the banking sector.’
‘The upcoming general election is also creating uncertainty for housing and business.’
In 2018, Australian domestic product grew by only 2.8 per cent, the weakest expansion in two years and well below the 3.5 per cent forecast by the RBA.
Digital Finance Analytics founder Martin North, an economist with 35 years’ experience, said the lack of credit availability was to blame for the sharp house price falls (Melbourne pictured)