No rebound in house prices as year kicks off - QV
House prices are continuing their decline started in early 2010, but at a slower rate, valuer QV said today.
Hot Topic
Rich List
House prices are continuing their decline started in early 2010, but at a slower rate, valuer QV said today.
House price values remained steady between December and January, but their annual decrease widened slightly compared with house prices that were rising a year ago.
QV's January indices were down 1.5 percent on a year ago, from a 0.9 percent decline in December.
Values dipped in early to mid 2009 before regaining some ground, but resumed their decline in the first three months of last year and are 5.8 percent below the market peak of late 2007, QV spokesman Jonno Ingerson said.
"Despite overall New Zealand values stabilising in recent months, there is considerable variability between areas.
"Values across the combined main centres have been stabilising, while across combined provincial and rural areas values have continued to slide," Mr Ingerson said.
In Auckland, values were down 0.6 percent on a year ago, while in Wellington they were down 2.5 percent. Seeing similar declines were Hamilton (-3.4 percent), Tauranga (-2.2 percent) and Dunedin (-3.7 percent), while house values in Christchurch rose 0.3 percent, lifted by demand for houses undamaged by September's earthquake.
While most people had returned from summer holidays, it was too early to predict what would happen to the property market this year.
QV's index is based on sales over the preceding three months, and differs from the average sales price which was little changed over the period at $409,067.
NZPA
Tue, 08 Feb 2011
Tue, 08 Feb 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
No rebound in house prices as year kicks off - QV
12177