House prices knocked back from April highs

Sales were up for the month but prices down, according to the latest residential property statistics.

Thursday, June 17th 1999, 12:00AM

by Paul McBeth

Sales were up for the month but prices down, according to the latest residential property statistics.
Figures compiled by the Real Estate Institute show the nationwide median house price has dropped from $170,000 in April to $167,875 in May. Meanwhile house sales rose from 7,004 to 7,162 over the same period.
Institute president Max Oliver says Wellington's the only region with consistently high median prices and high activity "and is continuing to run like an express train". He says the current low mortgage interest rates have had an impact on the number of new home owners, but expects that recent rate rises will show through in the next lot of statistics.

Looking a year back, the median house price is still up on May 1998 when the national figure stood at $164,000. House sales for that month were 5,300, well below the May 1999 total.

TOTAL DWELLINGS MEDIAN PRICE COMPARISONS FOR MAY
(information supplied by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand)

	1996	1997	1998	1999
Northland	115,000	138,000	147,500	153,000
Auckland	227,500	235,000	232,000	230,000
Waikato/BOP/Gisborne	133,000	145,000	150,000	156,500
Hawkes Bay	117,750	128,100	120,000	127,000
Manawatu/Wanganui	95,000	101,000	96,000	102,000
Taranaki	95,000	95,250	91,000	95,000
Wellington	139,500	152,000	168,500	170,000
Nelson/Marlborough	135,750	133,500	145,500	142,500
Canterbury/Westland (including South Canterbury)	132,000	138,450	140,000	140,000
Otago	95,875	97,000	95,000	86,000
Southland	80,000	85,000	66,500	76,000
Total	148,000	162,500	164,000	167,875

Paul is a staff writer for Good Returns based in Wellington.

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House prices knocked back from April highs

Sales were up for the month but prices down, according to the latest residential property statistics.

Thursday, June 17th 1999, 12:00AM

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