What's happening to house prices in the main urban areas:
Wednesday, July 11th 2007, 12:00AM
by The Landlord
Latest REINZ sales statistics reveal the market saw falls in median prices in seven of the 12 regions surveyed and rises in five, creating an inconclusive picture.
REINZ president Murray Cleland says, “Although the Auckland region median slipped back from $450,000 in May to $445,000 in June, closer scrutiny of the figures shows that the metropolitan Auckland median was down just $1000 from $451,000 in May to $450,000 in June and, significantly, the North Shore median was up from $535,000 in May to $539,000 in June; likewise the Auckland city median which rose from $492,000 to $495,000 in the same period, despite lower reported sales”.
The major cities showed surprisingly strong results in June with Hamilton city’s median up from $332,500 in May to $355,000; Tauranga up from $360,000 to $378,250 in the same period and Rotorua up from $251,000 to $255,000. Napier city was up from $299,000 in May to $309,750 in June and Palmerston North rose from $286,000 in May to $293,000 in June, closely followed by a strong Wanganui city market with the median up from $179,500 to $202,250.
Christchurch City was steady at $330,000.
Around the regions Northland was down from $330,000 in May to $315,000 in the latest month but Waikato and Bay of Plenty was up from $315,000 to $325,000.
Hawkes Bay was down from $277,000 to $268,100 but Manawatu and Wanganui region was up from $222,000 to $248,000.
Taranaki was down from $281,000 to $265,000 and Wellington was also down from $385,000 to $375,000, but Nelson Marlborough was strong, rising from $328,000 to $335,000.
Canterbury Westland was up from $305,000 in May to $305,250 in June, but Central Otago Lakes was back from $485,000 to $420,000, consistent with a region with relatively high values and lower sales volumes.
Otago was back from $240,000 in May to $230,000 while Southland gained a little more with a rise from $177,000 to $177,750 in June.
Southland also remains the leading region in terms of annual median house price growth at 24.73% followed by Manawatu and Wanganui up 19.23% and Nelson and Marlborough in third place at 17.95%.
