The Property Market Pulse report provides a set of factsheets for each of the 19 regions of the country consolidating the latest data from key sources in the real restate market. From the Real Estate Institute (REINZ) comes the latest sales numbers for June as well as the median sales price for key regions and the stratified sales price for key centers. From the Realestate.co.nz comprehensive database of listings comes the key measure of inventory of unsold properties on the market.
Property Sales
The number of property sales is a key measure of buyer activity. The Real Estate Institute release this data on a monthly basis from the sales made by all licensed agents in the prior month making this data the most timely and comprehensive. Actual monthly sales data is effected by seasonal factors, for this reason seasonally adjusted data is presented which clearly shows one month to the next if the sales are going up or down.
Commentary:
Sales in July fell by 2.9% from June on a seasonally adjusted basis. A total of 4,411 property sales were recorded by licensed real estate agents in the month of July. Back in July 2009 the total sales was 6,014. On a moving annual basis sales are up 2.8% with 63,701 sales in the past 12 months as compares to 61,952 in the prior 12 months.
Property Price
The selling price of properties measures that critical balance between what a buyer is prepared to pay and what a seller is prepared to accept. The Real Estate Institute data of prior month sales produces a median price. This raw number is then re-calculated through a model developed in partnership with the Reserve Bank of NZ to create a Stratified Price, which ensures that volume changes in key price segments do not skew the figures.
Commentary:
The stratified price fell in July to $359,525 from $363,925 in June. The June price is up just 1.8% as compared to July 2009. As highlighted in the chart above the sale price across the country has remained fairly stable over the past 9 month with some small ups and downs. The current price is still 3.1% below the peak price in the market back in November 2007.
Stock of Property
The number of properties on the month is provided from Realestate.co.nz data and measures the level of seller activity in the market. The data represents the total number of new listings coming onto the market each month and is compiled at the start of each month for the prior month and is published in the NZ Property Report. The measure of properties on the market is represented by the number of weeks of equivalent sales, and judged on a comparative basis with prior months more accurately reflects the state of the market.
Commentary:
The level of inventory of properties on the market measured in equivalent weeks of sale picked up again in July. It now stands at 47 weeks as compared to 47 weeks in June and compares to 33 weeks in July last year. The long term average is around 38 weeks which would indicate that the market is still very much in favour of buyers rather than sellers.
These statistics are the aggregation of all the statistics from across the country. As is well know by those in the industry, real estate is a local business and in an attempt to provide greater insight into the local market the same set of key data – sales, selling price and inventory has been calculated for each of the 19 regions of the country. Check out the factsheet for your local region to see what is happening in your neck of the woods.
North Island
Northland
Auckland
Coromandel
Waikato
Central North Island
Bay of Plenty
Gisborne
Hawkes Bay
Taranaki
Manawatu / Wanganui
Wairarapa
Wellington
South Island
Nelson
Marlborough
Canterbury
West Coast
Otago
Queenstown Lakes
Southland
The Waikato region Property Market factsheet for October 2010 can be downloaded by clicking this icon.
Inventory of houses on the market rose again in September to a new high of 66 weeks of equivalent sales. This level remains well above the long term average of 45 weeks. This would indicate that the market still holds an advantage for buyers.
