The Wellington housing market is the only one gaining momentum as the rest of the country continues to hold steady, according to a property market analysist's December figures.The nation-wide Mike Pero Mortgages-Infometrics property cycle indicator (PCI),
The Wellington housing market is the only one gaining momentum as the rest of the country continues to hold steady, according to a property market analysist's December figures.
The nation-wide Mike Pero Mortgages-Infometrics property cycle indicator (PCI), released today, was lower in December than previous months, as growth in house sales was at its weakest since April 2009, said Mike Pero Mortgages chief executive Shaun Riley.
"However, sales volumes in the December quarter were still up 31 percent from the end of 2008, indicating the housing market remains well in expansionary territory," he said.
Although sales activity showed signs of softening, the median house price rose $5000 from November to $360,000, which was up 9.62 percent from December 2008.
The PCI measures changes in the number of houses sold, changes in price, and the time taken for houses to sell. A PCI value of -10 shows a strong downturn, while +10 shows a strong upturn in the housing market.
The PCI fell slightly to a positive 6.68 in December, from 7.34 in November.
The time taken for houses to sell, was unchanged from November. The average number of days to sell property remained the same at 33 days in December, down 12 days from December 2008.
Wellington was the only city where the housing market continued to gain momentum in December and is leading the market according to PCI, Mr Riley said.
Wellington's December PCI was 9.37, up from 9.15 in November, and Auckland slipped slightly with a PCI of 8.68, from 9.05 in November.
In the South Island the Canterbury/Westland's PCI was 3.97, a decrease from 4.64 in November, Southland's was 2.21, from 2.48, and Nelson/Marlborough's was 3.09, from 3.21.
Otago lost a bit of ground with a PCI of 3.55, down from 3.89 in November.
Rents continued their gradual strengthening in December, up 1 percent from a year earlier, the fastest growth since January 2009.
