--- title: "Three Measures of Home Values and One Turn: What the ABS, Cotality and PropTrack Figures Show to September 2026" url: https://australianproperty.network/analysis/market-reports/three-measures-of-home-values-abs-cotality-proptrack-september-2026/ date: 2026-10-13 modified: 2026-10-13 lang: en author: "APN National" description: "Annual growth in home values reads 6.8%, 0.0% or 0.1% depending on the measure. The ABS figure is for the June quarter and the Cotality and PropTrack figures for September; all three put the high point in March 2026 and have fallen since." categories: - "Market Reports" tags: - "21100" - "Property Prices" - "Total Value of Dwellings" image: https://australianproperty.network/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Three-measures-October-2026.jpg word_count: 1359 --- # Three Measures of Home Values and One Turn: What the ABS, Cotality and PropTrack Figures Show to September 2026 Three widely quoted measures of Australian home values give three different numbers for growth over the past year: 6.8%, 0.0% and 0.1%. They do not disagree as much as that suggests. The first, from the ABS, is for the June quarter of 2026; the other two, from Cotality and PropTrack, are for September. All three place the highest point in March 2026, and all three have fallen since. The difference between them is mostly a difference of date, and partly a difference in what each one measures. **Data anchors** · Node reading for Property Prices & Market Reports (21100): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone · [Average Dwelling Prices (21112)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-21000/series-21100/series-21110/21112-median-dwelling-prices/) at **+0.1474σ**, June quarter 2026, position **56.4**, ranked against 56 quarters · [Hedonic Dwelling Value Indices (21111)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-21000/series-21100/series-21110/21111-hedonic-dwelling-value-indices/) at **−0.5842σ**, September quarter 2026, position **25.7**, ranked against 36 quarters. The three measures are not at the same date: the ABS figure is for the June quarter, the two indices for September. #### Three measures of one market | | ABS mean dwelling price | Cotality Home Value Index | PropTrack Home Price Index | | --- | ----------------------- | ------------------------- | -------------------------- | | Published by | Australian Bureau of Statistics | Cotality | PropTrack (REA Group) | | What it is | Average estimated value of every dwelling, in dollars | Index of dwelling values | Index of home prices | | How often | Quarterly | Monthly | Monthly | | Latest period | June quarter 2026 | September 2026 | September 2026 | | Change over the year | +6.8% | 0.0% | +0.1% | | Change in the latest period | −0.7% (quarter) | −1.1% (month) | −0.2% (month) | | Highest point | March quarter 2026 | March 2026 | March 2026 | | Below the highest point | 0.7% | 5.2% | 3.3% | ABS figures: APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data, Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026, Table 1 (A83728647F). Cotality and PropTrack figures are national, all dwellings, as published in each company’s release for September 2026. The ABS mean dwelling price is the simplest of the three. The ABS estimates the total value of every residential dwelling in Australia and divides it by the number of dwellings. The result is a dollar figure, $1,100,400 in the June quarter of 2026, for the average home whether or not it was sold. It is published once a quarter, about ten weeks after the quarter ends, and recent quarters are revised. The Cotality and PropTrack measures are indexes, published by private property-data companies at the start of each month for the month just ended. Each company uses its own method to estimate how home values have changed. They are quicker than the ABS figure and are reported as percentage changes; they are also revised, and the two companies’ figures for the same month usually differ a little. #### The ABS measure: growth over the year still positive, the quarter negative ##### ABS mean dwelling price, change over the year, Australia - −10%−5%0%5%10%15%20%25%30%2014201620182020202220242026ABS mean dwelling price, change over the year6.8% APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026, Table 1 (A83728647F). Change in the mean price of residential dwellings on the same quarter a year earlier, September quarter 2012 to June quarter 2026. Original series. On the ABS measure the mean dwelling price was 6.8% higher in the June quarter of 2026 than a year earlier. Annual growth had reached 10.0% in the March quarter. Since 2012 it has ranged from a fall of 6.1% over the year to March 2019 to a rise of 24.1% over the year to December 2021, and averaged 5.95% to the end of 2025. ##### ABS mean dwelling price, change in each quarter since 2022 −4%−3%−2%−1%0%1%2%3%4%5%Change on the previous quarter−0.7%20222023202420252026 APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026, Table 1 (A83728647F). Change in the mean price of residential dwellings on the previous quarter, March quarter 2022 to June quarter 2026. The quarterly figures show the turn. The mean price fell 0.7% between the March and June quarters of 2026, the fourth quarterly fall since the start of 2022 and the first since March 2023. Growth over the year stays positive for some time after a turn, because it still includes the rises of the previous three quarters. #### The monthly indices: annual growth near zero by September | Annual change at | Cotality | PropTrack | | ---------------- | -------- | --------- | | March 2026 | +9.9% | +9.4% | | June 2026 | +7.3% | +5.8% | | September 2026 | 0.0% | +0.1% | National, all dwellings, change on the same month a year earlier, as first published in each company’s monthly release. The two monthly indices show what the ABS measure cannot yet show. Cotality reported that national dwelling values fell 1.1% in September and 3.7% over the September quarter, leaving them unchanged from a year earlier and 5.2% below their March peak. PropTrack reported a fall of 0.2% in September, which it described as the sixth consecutive monthly fall, with prices 0.1% higher than a year earlier and 3.3% below their March peak. The two agree on the direction and the timing and differ on the size: Cotality’s fall since March is larger than PropTrack’s. In March both had annual growth above 9%; by June, 7.3% and 5.8%. #### Why the numbers differ Three things separate the measures. The first is date. The ABS figure of 6.8% describes the year to the June quarter; in June the two indices were also showing annual growth of between 5% and 8%. The ABS figure for the September quarter will be published in December. The second is the period being compared. A quarterly average smooths the months inside it, so a measure built on quarters turns later and more gently than one built on months. The third is what is being measured. The ABS figure is an average dollar value across the whole stock of dwellings, so it moves when the stock changes as well as when values do. The indices are published as measures of the change in home values. Not one of the three is a median sale price, which describes only the homes that sold in a period. #### Where the readings sit [Average Dwelling Prices (21112)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-21000/series-21100/series-21110/21112-median-dwelling-prices/) sets the ABS annual growth figure against its own history: at +0.1474σ in the June quarter of 2026 it was close to its 2012–2025 average, ranking 56.4 against 56 quarters. [Hedonic Dwelling Value Indices (21111)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-21000/series-21100/series-21110/21111-hedonic-dwelling-value-indices/) does the same for the Cotality annual change: at −0.5842σ in the September quarter it ranked 25.7 against 36 quarters, higher than about a quarter of them. Each reading describes annual growth, not the level of prices. +6.8%ABS mean dwelling price, year to the June quarter 20260.0%Cotality, year to September 2026+0.1%PropTrack, year to September 2026March 2026Highest point on all three measures #### What this does not show These are national figures, and the capital cities and regions have moved differently from one another. The monthly indices are first estimates and are revised in later releases. The ABS figure is three months older than the other two and will itself be revised. A fall from a peak says where values have been, not where they are going, and nothing here indicates how long the decline will last. **Methodology note.** Node reading for Property Prices & Market Reports (21100): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone. Average Dwelling Prices (21112) reads the change over the year in the ABS mean price of residential dwellings, standardised against the September quarter 2012 to the December quarter 2025. Hedonic Dwelling Value Indices (21111) reads the Cotality national 12-month change, standardised against 2017 to 2025, a shorter baseline than usual. ABS figures are calculated from Table 1 of Total Value of Dwellings, June quarter 2026: the mean price of residential dwellings, Australia, original. Cotality and PropTrack figures are the national, all-dwellings changes each company published in its release for the month named, so the March and June figures are from the releases for those months; they are quoted, not recalculated. **Sources** Australian Bureau of Statistics (Reference period: June quarter 2026) ‘Table 1. Total Value of Dwellings, All Series’ [data set], *Total Value of Dwellings, Australia* [[https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/jun-quarter-2026](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/jun-quarter-2026)], accessed 10 October 2026.- Cotality *Home Value Index, index results as at 30 September 2026 (released 1 October 2026)* [[https://www.cotality.com/au/our-data/indices](https://www.cotality.com/au/our-data/indices)], accessed 10 October 2026.- PropTrack *Home Price Report, September 2026 (released 1 October 2026)* [[https://www.proptrack.com.au/home-price-index/](https://www.proptrack.com.au/home-price-index/)], accessed 10 October 2026. *ABS material is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Calculations, standardisations and index readings are APN’s and are not attributable to the ABS.* *Figures are quoted from the publisher’s published releases and remain the property of the publisher.* Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.