Blacksmiths vs Stockton

Houses cost about the same in both suburbs: the median house price is $1.4M in Blacksmiths and $1.4M in Stockton.

On cash flow, Stockton leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 2.96%, compared with 2.70% in Blacksmiths, a gap of 0.26 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +10.3% in Blacksmiths and +8.0% in Stockton, so recent momentum favours Blacksmiths, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Looking back three years, Blacksmiths houses are +38.1% and Stockton houses +15.8%, so Blacksmiths has compounded faster than Stockton over the longer window.

Rental vacancy is 0.9% in Stockton and 2.0% in Blacksmiths, so landlords in Stockton face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

Stockton is the bigger suburb, with a population of 4,046 against 1,881, roughly 2.2 times the size of Blacksmiths; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

In short: Stockton for rental income, Blacksmiths for recent price momentum, Stockton for the tighter rental market. Which matters more depends on whether the investor is buying for cash flow, capital growth or affordability.