Latest residential sales figures make for the end of a roller coaster ride for Real Estate Institute president Murray Cleland's two years at the helm.

He oversaw the height of the market in early 2007 and is now witnessing its post-boom plunge.

He steps down in two weeks and says he'll spend a bit of time on his boat. He will be replaced by Mike Elford of Edinburgh Realty in Dunedin.

The latest figures show that the July resurgence was nothing more than a "dead cat bounce" with the August figures showing a significant drop in sales numbers and in the national median price)."It looks as if the leading economists are on the money with predictions of a 5 per cent to 10 per cent decrease in the market," Mr Cleland said.

He acknowledged it was good news for first home buyers. August sales were down to 4220, the lowest in 26 years since the Institute began compiling figures.

The national median selling price was down from $340,000 in June and July to $330,000 for August. This represents a 5.71 per cent drop on the August 2007 national median price of $350,000.

Mr Cleland said he believed the figures would reinforce expectations that the Reserve Bank will reduce the official cash rate and this will take the pressure off mortgage costs.

"There's a lot riding on a Spring upturn. I can only assume that the long spell of wet weather has had a big effect. But two things in this month's figures give a little hope, the first being a drop in days to sell nationally from 58 in July to 55 days in August, which suggests that market liquidity might be improving a little, despite the painfully low sales figures for the month." He attributed this to less selling pressure and slightly more confidence among buyers.

The second factor, Mr Cleland said, was the performance of Auckland, traditionally the leading barometer of the market. The Auckland median improved from $421,000 to $423,500 in August and days to sell fell from 52 days to 48 days.

The Auckland median price recovery was significant, according to Mr Cleland because it was driven by increased medians across Auckland, with North Shore up from $483,500 to $508,000 and Waitakere City up from $355,000 to $374,000.

Auckland City itself was up from $443,000 to $467,500 which in turn drove the Metropolitan Auckland median up from $425,000 to $430,000.

Auckland was one of three out of 12 regions to record increased medians in the latest statistics, along with Wellington, up from $371,000 to $375,000 and Southland, up from $172,000 to $190,000, with a number of smaller regions the hardest hit.

Mr Cleland warned that low sales figures can skew median price statistics. For example, the Gisborne median price fell to $212,000 in July on 31 sales.

It appeared to recover dramatically to $290,000 in August on just 29 sales ­ which is well down on the sales volume of August 2005 when 72 sales took place.

Around the regions, Northland experienced a fall in its median price, having recovered to $315,000 in July; it was back down to $285,000, while Waikato and Bay of Plenty was similarly affected, down from $325,000 to $316,000. Hawkes Bay was down from $282,000 to $265,000 after big falls in the Hastings and Napier medians, while Manawatu and Wanganui was down from $233,750 to $231,000.

The Nelson and Marlborough median eased from $330,000 in July to $328,000 in August, while Canterbury Westland was down from $300,000 to $290,000.

The volatile Central Otago Lakes (Queenstown and Wanaka) was down on low turnover from $565,000 to $465,000, reflecting the speculative nature of the market and high number of mortgagee sales (The National Business Review reported the collapse of this market in February).

Otago was down from $240,000 to $230,000. In percentage annual decease terms, Northland is now 10.23 per cent lower than a year ago and Auckland is down by 5.88 per cent.

Waikato and Bay of Plenty is down 2.76 per cent year on year, while Hawkes Bay is down 3.63 per cent. Manawatu and Wanganui remain in positive territory, up 7.44 per cent, but Taranaki is following the national trend, down 2.91 per cent.

Wellington is down 1.58 per cent, Nelson Marlborough is down 1.79 per cent but Canterbury and Westland shows one of the larger falls, down 6.45 per cent over the year. Central Otago Lakes is off 2 per cent and Otago down 3.36 per cent while Southland is still up 7.95 per cent.

The price band trends show that the majority of sales are under $400,000 at 2746 out of the total of 4220. Sales of properties worth $400,000 to $599,999 are down to 950 compared with 1549 a year ago, and sales of properties worth $600,000 to $999,999 are down from 736 in August 2007 to 421 in the latest period. Sales over $1 million are almost half of those a year ago down from 202 in August 2007 to 103 in the latest period.