Adelaide's median value has now fallen three months running. Out here in the north-east, every suburb I track is still up on the year — several by double digits. Both of those are true, and the gap between them is the story.
The city-wide picture
Adelaide's median dwelling value sits at $937,207, down 0.8% over the month and still up 8.6% over the year — Cotality's Home Value Index for August 2026.
Three things in that worth pulling apart. It's the third consecutive monthly fall and the steepest of this cycle. Values are now about 1.6% below the peak set in May 2026. And that 8.6% annual figure is the first sub-10% reading Adelaide has printed in this run — it was 10.5% only a month earlier.
For context, the national figure fell 0.9% over the same month. Adelaide is easing, not cracking, and it's easing slightly more gently than the country as a whole.
What that actually looks like in the north-east
Here's where the national headlines stop being useful. Median house price by suburb, June quarter 2026, from the Office of the Valuer-General's published sales data, against the same quarter a year earlier:
| Suburb | Median | Sales | Year on year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modbury Heights | $939,000 | 23 | +11.1% |
| Golden Grove | $933,500 | 28 | +7.9% |
| Hope Valley | $928,750 | 22 | +7.9% |
| St Agnes | $905,000 | 17 | +11.7% |
| Redwood Park | $900,000 | 16 | +19.1% |
| Ridgehaven | $895,000 | 22 | +15.5% |
| Modbury | $880,000 | 21 | +13.6% |
| Surrey Downs | $850,000 | 12 | +12.9% |
Source: Office of the Valuer-General SA, median house sales, June quarter 2026, compared against the June quarter 2025. Metropolitan Adelaide's median house price for the same quarter was $975,000.
Redwood Park at +19.1% is the standout, and Ridgehaven at +15.5% behind it. That's not a coincidence — they're the two cheapest entry points on the list, and when borrowing gets harder the pressure moves down the price ladder, not up it.
Read these carefully though. Each rests on twelve to twenty-eight sales in a single quarter. The Valuer-General puts the warning better than I would: "a relatively small number of sales, variations in the types of properties sold, and fluctuations at the suburb level may not accurately reflect genuine changes in market conditions… short-term movements should be viewed with caution."
So treat a 19% suburb number as a direction, not a valuation. Your house is worth what your house is worth.
Buyers have more choice than they've had in years
This is the shift I'd actually want you to take away, and it doesn't show up in a median at all.
Stock is up sharply
Adelaide listings sat roughly 41% above year-ago levels in August 2026 — and the year opened with stock about 38% below the five-year average. That's a big swing in a short time. (Cotality, September 2026 chart pack.)
Things are taking longer
Across the combined capitals, the median time to sell stretched to 33 days, from 26 days a year earlier. A week longer doesn't sound like much until you're the one waiting.
Sellers are discounting more
The median vendor discount across the capitals ran at 4.2% over the three months to August 2026 — the largest in at least two years. That is the clearest single sign that asking prices are running ahead of what buyers will pay.
None of that is a crash. It's the market handing some negotiating power back to buyers after several years of not having any.
Rates went up again
The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate 25 basis points to 4.60% at its meeting on 29 September 2026. That's the fourth rise of 2026 and the highest the cash rate has been since 2011.
The bank's reasoning, in short: inflation hasn't come down the way it was meant to, with the trimmed mean stuck around 3.6% against a 2–3% target, and global energy costs adding pressure on top.
What that means practically — if your pre-approval was written before late September, the number in it is out of date. Get it re-checked before you bid on anything. I've watched people lose a house over a finance clause that was based on a stale figure, and it is an avoidable way to lose.
Renting is still the tightest part of the market
Adelaide's rental vacancy rate was 0.7% as at July 2026 (SQM Research) — among the tightest in the country, against the 2–3% usually considered balanced. Rents were up around 5.3% over that year.
I'm flagging the date on those deliberately: they're July 2026 figures, older than the sales data above, so treat them as the shape of things rather than a current reading. The direction has been consistent for a long time though. If you're an investor in the north-east, yields on established houses out here still compare well against the city average.
What I'd do about it
If you're thinking of selling. Price to the evidence, not to what your neighbour got in May. With stock up and discounting at a two-year high, an optimistic asking price doesn't get tested and corrected — it just sits, and a property that sits gets bid on as if something's wrong with it. The first three weeks are the whole campaign.
If you're buying. You have more choice and more time than buyers did a year ago, and that is worth using. Know what's been sitting and for how long. A property that's been listed nine weeks is a different conversation from one listed nine days.
If you're doing both. This is the market where the order matters most, and where I'd want an actual conversation rather than a rule of thumb.
How I put this together
Suburb medians are the Office of the Valuer-General's published quarterly figures, free and public via data.sa.gov.au, for the June quarter 2026. City-wide values are Cotality's Home Value Index for August 2026, which was the latest published release at the time of writing. Listings, days-on-market and vendor discount are from Cotality's September 2026 chart pack. Rental figures are SQM Research, July 2026.
I've kept the Valuer-General and Cotality figures in separate sections on purpose. One is a single quarter, the other is a rolling twelve months. In a rising market the quarterly figure runs ahead, so putting them in one table would produce a comparison that looks precise and isn't.
No modelled estimates, no automated valuations, and nothing I can't point you at the source for.
The bottom line
The city median is easing. The north-east is still up on the year, and the cheaper end — Redwood Park, Ridgehaven — is running hardest.
Buyers finally have choice, time and some negotiating room. Sellers who price to evidence are still doing well; sellers who price to memory are sitting.
I write one of these every month. If there's a suburb or a question you want covered in the next one, tell me and I'll put it in.