The average house price in New Zealand remained at $340,000 in July, unchanged from June. Prices rose in most areas but the average was unchanged because prices in the Auckland market continued falling.

The number of houses sold in July was the lowest for at least 10 years and was over forty percent down on the number sold at the same time last year.

REINZ President Mr Murray Cleland commented: “There is an unmistakable degree of recovery in July, which is surprising given that it is generally regarded as the worst winter month, with good improvement in median prices around the country despite continued low sales volumes.

“However, Auckland was the notable exception, with a further fall in the median price from $435,000 in June to $421,000 on dismal sales of 1,411 properties.”

A drop in sales of properties over one million dollars was also a factor, Mr Cleland said.

“It’s not surprising that Auckland is finding itself very much at the epicentre of the current economic recession and in particular the continued fallout from the finance sector collapses, and its therefore understandable that confidence in the Auckland residential market at this point is pretty low.”

• House prices are 1.4 percent lower than a year ago, when New Zealand’s median house price was $345,000.
• Prices are down 3.4 percent from their peak of $352,000 in November 2007.
• The number of properties sold fell from 6,660 in July 2007 to 4,489 in July 2008. This was the lowest number of sales in July since at least 1999.
• The average number of days to sell a house was 58, the highest July figure since at least 1999.

Compared with prices in June, nine out of New Zealand’s twelve regions reported price rises in July, and three reported falls.

On an annual basis, seven of the twelve regions saw a rise in prices and five reported falls.

Annual New Zealand House Price Changes