McCracken vs Port Adelaide

The median house price is $850K in McCracken and $870K in Port Adelaide, so McCracken is the cheaper entry point, with Port Adelaide houses about 2% dearer.

For units, McCracken sits at a median of $375K against $700K in Port Adelaide, which makes McCracken the more affordable unit market and Port Adelaide the pricier one.

On cash flow, Port Adelaide leads: houses there return a gross rental yield of 3.90%, compared with 3.77% in McCracken, a gap of 0.13 percentage points.

Over the past year house prices moved +12.2% in McCracken (an estimate) and +15.3% in Port Adelaide (an estimate), so recent momentum favours Port Adelaide, although both suburbs recorded growth.

Rental vacancy is 0.6% in Port Adelaide and 0.9% in McCracken, so landlords in Port Adelaide face less competition for tenants. Anything under 2% is generally read as a tight market where tenants compete for homes.

McCracken is the bigger suburb, with a population of 2,076 against 1,338, larger than Port Adelaide; a larger suburb usually means a deeper pool of buyers and tenants.

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