Northland's housing market experienced a surge of new listings in December - bucking the trend of what is traditionally a quieter month.
The NZ Property Report compiled monthly by property listing website Realestate.co.nz says there were 603 new listings on the Northland market last month - 42.9 per cent more than in December 2011.
It was the second biggest regional year-on-year rise in New Zealand behind Southland, which had a 72.5 per cent increase with 314 new listings.
But the "truncated mean" asking price for Northland homes fell 14.4 per cent from November to $366,584 last month - the largest regional reduction in the country.
Realestate.co.nz says the "truncated mean" measure, which drops both the upper and lower 10 per cent of listings, removes the extremes which can skew traditional average price figures.