KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders are taking less time to sell their houses now than in the middle of winter and prices are bucking the national trend, rising slightly last month.
Latest Real Estate Institute (REINZ) figures showed that in July, Aucklanders were taking 52 days on average to sell a house but took just 48 days on average last month.
The city's house price median rose $2500, from July's $421,000 to $423,500 last month. Only two other areas, Wellington and Southland, showed price growth out of the 12 regions REINZ surveyed.
Today, the Weekend Herald takes a longer-term view of Auckland's house price changes, with a 10-year survey using monthly median figures from sales recorded in August 1998, August 2004, August last year and last month which showed a more heartening picture of value of the city's housing stock than we often get on a monthly basis.
Nationally, the housing picture is not so aglow.
REINZ said just 4220 houses sold last month, the lowest since the institute began collecting data 26 years ago. The national median slipped from $340,000 in June and July to $330,000 last month.
Murray Cleland, REINZ's outgoing president, said he hoped for better sales numbers this month. "The market normally recovers from the winter blues from September 1 so all I can say is there is a lot riding on spring."
Mr Cleland is due to be replaced by Dunedin-based vice-president Mike Elford at REINZ's national conference which opens in Rotorua on Wednesday.
This week's Reserve Bank statement had great news for house-hunters, locked out of the market most of this decade. But it was grim for homeowners hoping for a fast recovery. "We continue to assume that a large adjustment is currently occurring in the housing market," the bank's statement said.
"House prices are projected to fall by 10 per cent in 2008, with negative annual growth rates persisting until 2011. From their peak in 2007, nominal house prices are projected to fall by about 15 per cent, or 24 per cent in real terms, slightly more than projected in the June statement."
