Property analysts continue to forecast a 5.0% rise in Australian home prices in 2024, a Reuters poll showed, brushing off central bank comments since the last poll three months ago that leave open the possibility of an interest rate hike before year-end. After a 25% surge during the pandemic, average house prices tumbled 9% from their peak but clawed back almost all of that last year even though the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked the cash rate to a 12-year high of 4.35%. Since the 2008 financial crisis, home prices have nearly doubled.