I'm in Seaford, South Australia, 5169....

I'm in Seaford, South Australia, 5169.
http://www.sqmresearch.com.au/graph_vacancy.php?postcode=5169&t=1
(Remember to scroll to the right!)

If you look at the vacancy chart above, we were averaging a vacancy rate of about 1% since the data was first recorded in 2005. Since this year, however, things have taken a turn for the worse and in July the vacancy rate hit 3.1 percent.

I'm in a complex of 20 almost identical town-houses, which makes comparison easy. When I started the tenancy in December 2010, the asking rate was $340/wk. The townhouse I was looking at had been empty for a little while, so I offered $330.

Since then there has been quite a few vacancies and the advertised going rate has fallen to $320/wk. There has been a few failed attempts to sell, but it looks like no 2 has just been sold - It was first listed for $340,000, then dropped to $315k to 325k after 50 days on the market. Can't find it listed on onthehouse yet - I'm interested to know what the final sale price is. The other ones were taken off the market when the new financial year came in. I guess they will ride the market out for another year, and then try again.

We also appear to have vacant townhouses which are not listed. I believe number 5 is empty at the moment (there is nothing in the front loungeroom) and likewise number 9. When we had as many as four vacant, I noticed there was only one listed on the web. I suspect as they are all the same, and most are listed by the same agent, they had decided not to list them all at once and further depress the market.