The June quarterly summary released last week shows the median weekly rent in Greater Bunbury increased 6.7 per cent since March this year.

Median sale prices for houses decreased from $370,000 in March to $367,500, however house prices were still up 4.9 per cent from June last year.

REIWA Bunbury representative Roslyn Ierace said she was pleasantly surprised by the area’s continued growth.

“For everything the market’s been doing, the long-term figures are actually quite positive,” she said.

Millbridge saw the biggest increase in sale prices with over 100 houses or blocks sold since June 2009 for a median of $455,000.

Pelican Point and Carey Park were next with both suburbs registering a 10.8 per cent in the past 12 months to a median price of $617,500 and $288,000 respectively.

Carey Park was the seventh highest regional growth centre this quarter, which Ms Ierace said reflected a market shift to more affordable housing.

“We’ve seen realism in that price range and Carey Park is one area where you have got a lot of realistic sellers,” she said.

Eaton and Gelorup also recorded strong growth with a sale price increase of around eight per cent each.

In Australind sale prices increased an average of $6000 from March this year to $376,000.

Slow house sales in Usher saw the median sale price drop 2.4 per cent to $300,000, down from $307,000 in the December quarter last year.

While the recovering house prices will reassure Bunbury home owners, they still lag behind the South West’s regional growth of 5.6 per cent or $380,000 per home.

Strong regional growth is being driven by a significant spike in sale values in the Bussleton Shire with a 15.5 per cent increase as well as the Manjimup-Bridgetown area with an increase of 18.7 per cent.

Bussleton city, Augusta-Margaret River and Collie-Preston all saw slower rates of growth than Greater Bunbury.