The Residential Property Market has found its level for Spring

New Zealand house sales numbers ease slightly which is unusual for our Spring Market and the median price rises ever so slightly. Nationally, the Spring Market is not producing the expected “lift” and stays quite steady. Every Spring we expect a surge in sales as families seek to get moved before the summer. September gave us a clue that this Spring would not be as busy as hoped and October’s sales figures confirm that.

Whilst we remain over 5000 sales for October at 5,007 it is down 228 compared to September, when we all expected it to rise. Maybe buyers were distracted by the Rugby World Cup, the upcoming election and the unsettling events in the European Financial Markets. On the North Shore sales have been steady while Harcourts market share has increased.

Sales were way ahead of 12 months ago, being up 1,104 sales up on October 2010 (+28.3%) when sales numbers were at their lowest for the past 20 years.
It was interesting to note the sales volumes in Auckland dropped  by 4.7% when one would normally expect a modest increase over the previous month, but of all our centres Auckland was probably the most distracted by the Rugby World Cup.
The sales activity around the country varied so much when compared to the previous month:
Taranaki    + 15.5%
Wellington + 7.6%
Southland  + 2.4%
Northland   – 28.7%
Auckland    – 4.7%
Southland’s median price rose 19.3% and Taranaki rose 11.1%

The median days to sell continues to improve, moving from 37 days in September to 35 days in October. The last five years have averaged 41 days so  we are in a fairly settled market now and maybe for a few more months too.
The national median price rose by $9000 in October and continues to fluctuate in the same narrow range over the last two years  of $345 000 to $365 000. 
July             2011        @ $345 000
August        2011        @ $355 000
September 2011       @ $350 000
October      2011        @ $359 000

The regions continue to show marked variations month by month. With low sales volumes in some regions the median price will always fluctuate and too much should not be read in to the figures from any one month. A marked increase in activity in Taranaki and Southland shows there is confidence in the provincial and rural areas and in the past, many previous growth periods in the property market have begun in theprovinces.  It could now be FebruaryMarch before we see any real change.

REGION 

                                                  Sept.Median               October Median
Northland                                                 $290 000                        $292 500
Auckland                                                   $475 000                        $465 000
Waikato / Bay of Plenty                         $300 000                        $315 475
Hawkes Bay                                              $270 750                        $259 500
Taranaki                                                    $261 528                         $290 500
Manawatu / Wanganui                          $220 000                         $221 750
Wellington                                                $380 000                        $392 500
Nelson / Marlborough                           $326 000                         $343 500
Canterbury / Westland                          $311 500                          $329 000
Central Otago / Lakes                            $385 000                        $420 000
Otago                                                         $230 000                        $232 000
Southland                                                 $171 000                          $204 000

(Source of figures; REINZ Statistics October 2011, released 11th November 2011).