As an island of property boom in a global sea of downturn, Australia faces a dubious dilemma with Melbourne and Sydney leading another big monthly gain in housing prices. While this boom threatens housing affordability, price increases could also stimulate lending and construction, helping fill the supply side of the equation. For more on this, see the following article from Property Wire.

Residential property prices in Australia are continuing to surge as the Royal Bank of Australia warns that the real estate market is about to explode.

The latest price index from RP Data shows house prices rose 1.9% in August, the largest monthly movement since the group’s indexes began in January 2005.
 
Melbourne and Sydney recorded the biggest jumps in August, up 2.67% and 2.09% respectively. Australia’s two biggest capital cities have also outpaced the rest of the nation this year, with Melbourne prices rising 11.6% and Sydney up 8.67% in the first eight months of 2009.

Overall, Australian house prices are up 7.9% in the same period. source: http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/australia-real-estate-continues-surge-53794.aspx
The state of the world market is not always as doom and gloom as the national media would project.  There are still areas in the world as well as the US where there are positive gains in the market.  One of those places would be Naples, Fl.  Each month the Naples Area has experienced an increase of sales from the previous month. 
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