How’s this for a big number: $5,399,951,800,000.00.

No wonder we’re all obsessed with housing prices – that’s the total value of all the dwellings in Australia.

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If all the commas bother you, you can just call it $5,400 billion. Or $5.4 trillion. Take your pick.

Either way, it’s a lot of wealth tied up in bricks and mortar, and the land it’s sitting on.

It works out to eight years worth of all the wages and salaries earned in Australia. And it’s risen by $407 billion in the past year alone.

Here are some figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ house price index estimates for the December quarter released on Tuesday:

NUMBER OF HOMES, AVERAGE AND TOTAL VALUES

NSW: 2,935,400 homes, average value $702,500, total value $2,062bn

Vic: 2,408,200 homes, average value $568,000 total value $1,368bn

Qld: 1,878,500 homes, average value total value $459,400 $863bn

WA: 1,004,600 homes, average value $596,900, total value $600bn

SA: 747,800 homes, average value $404,100 total value $302bn

ACT: 157,000 homes, average value $570,600, total value $90bn

Tas: 237,000 homes, average value $312,300, total value $74bn

NT: 79,700 homes, average value $520,000, total value $41bn

Australia: 9,448,300 homes, average value $571,500, total value $5,400bn

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, December quarter data.