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Housing affordability has reached a five year high, according to a survey.
Housing affordability improved to its best level in five years in January because of a fall in house prices and sharp reductions in mortgage interest costs, a monthly survey by interest.co.nz found.
The website's editor Bernard Hickey said it was predicting housing would be affordable again for most New Zealanders by the end of 2009.
"All of the trends are converging to make housing much more affordable for both families and single income home buyers.
"House prices are sliding, interest rates have fallen fast, taxes are set to be cut again and incomes are rising, even if much more slowly," Mr Hickey said.
These had all combined to reduce the proportion of after tax income needed to service mortgages on median homes, he said.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Star Times reported that mortgagee sales listings had increased in the past year on two top real estate websites - Trade Me and realestate.co.nz.
Mortgagee sales listing on Trade Me had increased from 32 to 106 between January 2008 and January 2009, and realestate.co.nz said listings on its site had increased from 95 to 285.
One in every 200 homes listed for sale on realestate.co.nz was on the hock after being forced into foreclosure by the mortgage holder.
Alistair Helm from realestate.co.nz said Auckland dominated the mortgage sales market and most of the mortgage listings were under $300,000.
Around 8 per cent of mortgage listings on realestate.co.nz were for houses worth more than $1m.
"Mortgagee" was Trade Me's top keyword for searches last year.
Trade Me's head of property Brendon Skipper said most of his mortgagee listings were from Auckland.
The lowest number of listings were in Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Taranaki and the West Coast.
- NZPA
