It's painful being right all the time, so I will not say I told you so... where are all the doomsayers on property from eight months ago now?
People told me I was wrong and property prices were going to fall 40 per cent, so I bought another one - You can make a lot of money being wrong.
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Perth's property market defied expectations of a slump in 2009, with new data showing home values rose 6.5 per cent for the year to November.
Research by RP Data-Rismark shows the median house price in Perth is $460,000, but the increase lagged behind the national average rise of 11.3 per cent.
Darwin was the standout performer with a 17.9 per cent increase, followed by Melbourne on 17 per cent and Sydney on 11.6 per cent.
The statistics are based on data for 90 per cent of all residential property sales in Australia.
Rismark International managing director Christopher Joye said most forecasters had said in late 2008 that house prices would fall substantially during the global financial crisis.
"There were a lot of doomsday predictions from forecasters and they were proved wrong," Mr Joye said.
"Australia's housing market has surprised on the upside with impressive double-digit capital gains in the year to date."
Mr Joye said that even in late 2009 the public perception was that the entire Perth property market had slumped this year.
He predicted that property values across the country would taper back slightly to single-digit growth as interest rates returned to more neutral levels of 7 to 8 per cent. Perth's growth would remain steady or increase slightly.
Mr Joye said there was evidence that first-homebuyers were slowly fading from the market but investors and homeowners wanting to upgrade to a better property had filled the gap.
"The key driver of Australian housing demand in the latter half of the year appears to have been upgraders and investors," he said.
