Where to find the most family-friendly suburbs

A new report from Well Money identified what makes a suburb family-friendly and listed 20 locations where these suburbs could be found.

Well Money CEO Scott Spencer said the list indicates that homeownership remains realistic for many families despite affordability becoming a concern.

“There’s no doubt it can be tough for families on average incomes to buy into a family-friendly suburb in a capital city,” he said.

“Families should take heart from the downturn in property prices we’re currently seeing in many parts of the country, because that reduces the deposit hurdle.”

Mr Spencer said the rate tightening cycle is close to the end, which would give families the confidence to join the market the soonest possible time.

On top of that, unemployment levels are low, which would mean a steady income for most families.

What makes a suburb family-friendly?

Mr Spencer said despite the changes to the way Australians live their lives, some preferences towards choosing a home remained.

“Even though very few of us live on a quarter-acre block these days, most of us still want a house with a yard where we can host barbecues and play with the kids,” he said.

“It’s also clear that many families still aspire to home ownership. Buying a house is still widely seen as a rite of passage, alongside having children.”

But what makes a suburb family-friendly? Here are some of the characteristics of a family-friendly suburb under current market conditions:

• It must be located within or near a capital city.
• The suburb must have a median house price not exceeding $1.5m.
• The share of owner-occupiers must be at least 70%.
• Freestanding houses must comprise 60% of all properties.
• Each household must have at least 2.5 people on average.
• The suburb must have a Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) score of at least 6. (A score of at least 6 denotes that the suburb is in the top half of the country for educational and occupational status).

Where are the most family-friendly suburbs?

Well Money’s family-friendly suburbs list includes six from South Australia, four from Victoria, three each from New South Wales and Tasmania, and two each from Queensland and Western Australia.

More than half of the suburbs in the list have a median price under $1m.

Meanwhile, the increase in inventory levels in these suburbs over the past three months were at least 1.2 months.

For context, inventory levels is the amount of time it would take to sell all houses in a particular market if the properties kept selling at the current rate and no more listings were added.

State	Suburb	Median house price	Increase in inventory levels over past 3 months	SEIFA Score
TAS	Otago	995,000	3.6 months	7
SA	Seaford Heights	570,000	3.4 months	9
VIC	Kinglake West	930,000	3.2 months	6
VIC	Wonga Park	1,390,000	2.2 months	9
SA	Tea Tree Gully	652,284	2.2 months	7
SA	One Tree Hill	899,000	2.2 months	7
WA	Banjup	1,300,000	2.2 months	8
SA	Netherby	1,242,000	2.1 months	10
SA	Westbourne Park	1,009,400	2.0 months	10
NSW	Bullaburra	863,550	2.0 months	9
QLD	Seventeen Mile Rocks	851,400	1.7 months	10
SA	Stirling	1,288,000	1.7 months	10
NSW	Bungarribee	1,245,000	1.6 months	9
NSW	Valley Heights	880,000	1.5 months	9
VIC	North Warrandyte	1,250,000	1.5 months	10
WA	Carine	999,606	1.3 months	10
VIC	New Gisborne	831,497	1.3 months	9
QLD	Upper Kedron	1,031,665	1.2 months	10
TAS	Blackmans Bay	875,000	1.2 months	8
TAS	Howden	1,350,000	1.2 months	10

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