Blackburn vs Mount Waverley

The median house price is $1.6M in Blackburn and $1.6M in Mount Waverley, so Mount Waverley is the cheaper entry point, with Blackburn houses about 1% dearer.

For units, Blackburn sits at a median of $765K against $1.1M in Mount Waverley, which makes Blackburn the more affordable unit market and Mount Waverley the pricier one.

Over the past year house prices moved +0.3% in Blackburn and -2.8% in Mount Waverley, so recent momentum favours Blackburn, while Mount Waverley went backwards.

Looking back three years, Blackburn houses are +3.7% and Mount Waverley houses +0.8%, so Blackburn has compounded faster than Mount Waverley over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 1.6% in Blackburn and 1.7% in Mount Waverley, so landlords in Blackburn face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Mount Waverley is the bigger suburb, with a population of 35,340 against 14,478, roughly 2.4 times the size of Blackburn; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Mount Waverley for a lower purchase price, Blackburn for recent price momentum, Blackburn for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.