ANZ's economists expect a 3% increase in house prices over the second-half of the year

ANZ's economists expect house prices to rise slightly in the second half of this year. "We are forecasting house prices to lift just over 3% across the second half of the year," their latest Property Focus report says. "While there are still plenty of headwinds facing the housing market, we expect the tailwinds will blow a little more strongly across the second half of the year." "While high mortgage rates are certainly suppressing demand by sucking money out of debtors' pockets, household incomes have also grown strongly because of the tight labour market," the report says. "We now see the unemployment rate rising to 4.2% by the end of the year, rather than 4.4%," the report said.