So much for a COVID-induced property crash… Australia’s home prices surged at their fastest rate since 2003. Every capital city and region recorded significant growth last month on the back of record-low interest rates, government incentives and a limited number of homes for sale. Sydney and Hobart led the pack with a 2.5% surge, with Melbourne and regional centres next with 2.1% price growth. Melbourne remains the only capital in negative territory when you look at home prices over the previous 12 months. And it doesn’t look like it will stop there – Westpac yesterday said that home prices could climb as much as 10% both this year and the next. Yikes… Also on the up in February were job advertisements, hitting their highest level since October 2018. Economists say that’s promising for the employment pipeline, and it might help come the end of JobKeeper later in March.