MEMORIAL Drive in Bar Beach has taken out another gong, being named the top street in Newcastle and Port Stephens.
It sits at number one on a list of top 25 streets compiled by Suburbtrends.
The latest accolade comes after the beachfront street was named the most expensive street in regional NSW in October, topping high-priced areas such as Bowral and Byron Bay.
Memorial Drive is placed at number one with a median house price estimate of $4,027,000, according to Suburbtrends, followed closely by Merewether's John Parade with a median of $3,693,500.
Newcastle suburbs dominate the top 10 but Port Stephens made two appearances at seven and 10 respectively with Garuwa Street in Fingal Bay priced with a median house price estimate of $2,012,000 and Corlette's Gawul Circuit at $1,713,000.
Newcastle accounted for 18 out of the 25 suburbs and Port Stephens had seven suburbs on the list.
The list was compiled by analysing every suburb in Newcastle and Port Stephens.
House price estimates were created for every house in the two regions to generate the final list of the top 25 streets. The street with the current highest median house price was selected for each suburb.
The report was created for Newcastle-based buyers agent Chad Dunn who said that while sellers are generally aware if they are in the blue-ribbon part of a suburb they may not know how their street ranks.
"Buyers love to find out what the top streets in the best performing suburbs are," Mr Dunn said.
"We are not talking suburbs and we are not talking individual houses, we're talking streets that have had consistent strong sales.
"This report tells us that even though the market is a little bit shaky, these are the spots if you are looking for the worst house on the best street or if you are looking for a house and want to be sure that you are buying into an area that has a good track record."
With property prices dropping after hitting an all-time high during the pandemic and Mr Dunn expecting listing volumes to rise, he said buyers now had a better chance of purchasing in sought-after areas.
"Buying any house in the best street has been very hard in recent years," he said.
"As listings volumes start to creep back to normal, buyers can start to explore opportunities in some of the most exclusive streets in suburbs across Newcastle and Port Stephens.
"Back when the market was booming, it was more about buyers saying 'Just get me into anything before someone else'. Now they are pickier and they are looking for the best streets.
"The benefit with this property market is that the proven areas are starting to come in at fair value".
While the list includes a few surprise inclusions such as Barwon Close in Elermore Vale, coveted addresses such as Parkway Avenue continue to rate highly.
Lyndall Allan of Salt Property sold a classic three-bedroom 1936 California bungalow at 215 Parkway Avenue, which came in at number five on the list, at auction in October for $2.2 million.
She said the street, which runs through Hamilton East, Hamilton South, Cooks Hill and Bar Beach, has long been a sought-after address for its mixture of art deco and Federation homes.
"Parkway Avenue has always been a prestigious address," Mrs Allan said.
"That is due to the standard of homes that were built on the street. Parkway Avenue is full of beautiful heritage manor-style homes. They're not your cookie-cutter homes, they are all very substantial and are, generally, brick homes on large blocks.
"Every house on that street is quite grand."
PRD's Dane Queenan said it was no surprise to see addresses in Port Stephens rank high on the list.
He said the region had become popular with Sydneysiders on the hunt for a weekender property.
His listing at 43 Gawul Circuit in Corlette, which placed tenth on the list, set a new street record on October 18 when it sold for $2.5 million.
"Gawul Circuit is a new subdivision in Corlette and it's very popular because it's surrounded by quality new homes and it is situated very close to the beach," Mr Queenan said.
"Port Stephens is very appealing to a lot of Sydneysiders at the moment looking for holiday homes because of how beautiful the area is and because it offers that beach lifestyle.
"A lot of people are attracted to that and the fact we are only two hours north of Sydney."
