Fall In Jobless Rate To Fuel Higher House Prices
Unemployment is at its lowest since figure March 2020.
By Terry Christodoulou
Fri, Mar 19, 2021 11:13am
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Unemployment has fallen sharply over February and is now close to pre-covid shutdown levels.
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the national unemployment rate seasonally adjusted fell sharply by 0.5% over February to 5.8%, the lowest rate since the pre-covid results of 5.2% recorded over March 2020.
Following strong buyer demand in Australian capital cities, with Sydney and Melbourne housing prices rising sharply in the first quarter of the year, experts are tipping lower unemployment figures to fuel higher housing prices.
“A rapidly improving labour market will enhance housing affordability and confidence, adding upward pressure on already strongly growing prices,” Dr Andrew Wilson, Chief Economist My Housing Market said.
All states reported falls in the jobless rate over February with Queensland performing strongest, falling 0.8%. NSW and VIC reported the lowest jobless rates at 5.6%.
“Concerns over the possible significant negative impact on the economy of the tapering of the Job Keeper allowances at the end of this month will also likely to be misplaced – again,” Dr Wilson added.
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A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
By E.B. Solomont
Thu, Sep 24, 2026 3 min
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For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
