After seeing price falls in April, the New Zealand housing market defied the pundits by rallying in May, a month not normally noted for increased prices.
The national median selling price rose rose $3,000 from April’s figure to $275,000.
The number of houses sold was down slightly from 9,416 in May 2004 to 9,280 in May 2005.
The average number of days needed to sell rose by one day, to 29 days.
National President of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, Mr Howard Morley said, “Days to sell have always been a good indicator of the health of the market and the last five years shows that the market is still short of good stock.”
House Price Changes
| Region | Median Price March |
Change since February |
| Northland | $251,500 | up 9.3 % |
| Auckland Region | $370,000 | up 0.3 % |
| Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne | $245,000 | up 0.4 % |
| Hawke’s Bay’s | $249,500 | up 8.5 % |
| Manawatu/Wanganui | $160,000 | up 3.2 % |
| Taranaki | $162,600 | up 31.5 % * |
| Wellington Region | $285,000 | up 3.6 % |
| Nelson/Marlborough | $265,000 | down 1.5 % |
| Canterbury/Westland | $247,500 | up 2.3 % |
| Otago | $201,750 | down 6.6 % |
| Southland | $150,000 | up 3.8 % |
* Large increase is recovery from large drop in April that was caused by unusually high sales of lower-priced houses.