House prices have tumbled 7.9 per cent in the past 12 months, says CoreLogic

National home values have plunged 7.9 per cent in the past year and are down 9.1 per cent across the capital cities as higher interest rates have discouraged potential purchasers and vendors, property market analyst CoreLogic says.

In the ACT, house prices have dropped a more moderate 6.7 per cent in the past 12 months, including a 2.7 per cent decline in the three months to February.

The housing update came as National Australia Bank and Westpac announced their standard variable home loan and saving deposit rates would increase by 0.25 of a percentage point, matching the rate rise implemented by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The RBA expects the drop in wealth among home owners caused by the house price decline and the increase in home loan rates to help dampen consumption.

But Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe on Wednesday said the recent fall in dwelling values only partially unwound the big gains made in recent years, limiting the extent of wealth loss.

CoreLogic's research director Tim Lawless said even with recent falls, average home values were 14.8 per cent higher than in March 2020.

And there were some signs prices were stabilising and even beginning to rise.

Mr Lawless said the pace of decline had been easing since September and daily sales data calculated on a rolling four-week basis showed house values in Sydney were beginning to rise and in Melbourne were showing encouraging signs.

But the housing market expert warned the fall in prices could resume.

"With interest rates moving higher, we are still seeing housing risks skewed to the downside," he said. "Arguably the full extent of the aggressive rate hiking cycle is yet to flow through to households. As the 'bulge' in fixed rate lending that occurred through 2020 and 2021 expires, more households will see their interest repayments adjust higher."

Despite the mounting financial pressure on borrowers, instances of significant mortgage distress remain contained, though Mr Lawless warned they were set to increase as the higher official cash rate fed through to home loan rates.

Ninety-day mortgage arrears were around record low levels late last year but "it would be naive to expect mortgage delinquencies to remain at such low levels", he said, pointing to the fact since late 2021 new borrowers have been assessed on their ability to service their loan under a scenario where interest rates are at least 3 percentage points higher than the origination rate.

"With the cash rate now 350 basis points higher ... along with cost-of-living expenses probably well above what was budgeted, more households are likely to be facing balance sheets that have become thinly stretched," Mr Lawless said.

While households are increasingly feeling the financial pinch, there is no sign yet that is translating into significant industrial unrest.

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The number of disputes declined marginally to 69 in the December quarter and resulted in 21,300 working days lost, far fewer than the 128,100 days lost mid-last year and around the long-term average, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed.

Most of the period covered by the data predates the passage of the federal government's industrial relations changes which included a controversial provision allowing for multi-employer bargaining.

The government said the changes were needed to help kick-start wage growth after a decade of stagnation while the Opposition claimed it would lead to "economy-wide strikes".