Do we believe the hype coming out of Auckland and more belatedly Christchurch.

Ross Foreman (New Zealand greatest Real Estate Auctioneer) told me yesterday that a year or so ago he was trying to help his son or daughter up the ladder into their first home in Auckland “doesn’t that sound like de-ja-vu” anyway, they could look in the mid $400,000 bracket but could not find much to buy, funnily enough they looked in the Te Atatu area at first homes, last Saturday, Ross sold under the hammer at Auction a home in the Te Atatu, that 12 months ago was $400,000 (flat out all day long), yes you know the next part of the story line, before I even write it…. It sold for $595,000 this time around  -  What does this tell us??  I guess, you have to say Auckland is booming.

Where are we in Hamilton?  Waiting with our collective hands out…

Let’s look at the last two years , as the four years before that were just too horrible to contemplate, record lows in sales and limited cheque books firmly away.

A benchmark  -  in the 6 years, 2002  -  2007 the average number of sales in Hamilton for February were 340 sales per month.

Now benchmark  -  in the 6 years 2008  -  2013 the average number of sales were 205 for the February month, that’s a whopping 40% reduction.  Remember this is only lifted up to that level because of the 246 last year and the 245 house sales this February.  “Yes”  1 less than last year and in January this year we had  5 less sales than January 12months ago -  so clearly Hamilton is not booming , not yet anyway.

But, I hear Salespeople and Agents talking the market up!  I hear you say, they are on the radio with all their hype and word messaging  -   ‘Real Estate news’ sounds like a boom  -  I had better buy quickly.

Are they right? Yes! Yes!  Yes!

But for the wrong reasons, Hamilton is not booming yet and the sales numbers clearly show that.  Remember 2013 has in fact softened on 2012 and 2012 was not a great year.  So they are fibbing a little in their ‘Real Estate News’.

Yes you had better buy quick!  Hamilton and the Waikato is great buying right now  -   tens if not hundreds of thousands of capital gain are right around the corner.

Buyers are being squeezed out of the Auckland Market and our transport links North with lots of new roads are almost complete.  We have the Chiefs (http://www.chiefs.co.nz/); we have the Magic (http://www.netballmagic.co.nz/home.php); we have the greatest little city in New Zealand (http://www.visithamilton.co.nz/); soon we will have 10,000  -  20,000 Aucklanders saying “Let me in”

Buy Now, soon everybody will know about our secret, so before these 10  -  20,000 Aucklanders arrive, Buy Wise, Buy Now.   (http://hamilton.ljhooker.co.nz/)

OF COURSE SELLING AND BUYING ON THE SAME MARKET CAN NOT EVER

As for Wellington not sure what is going on in the windy city – but seems they need a blast of confidence!

Greigs Comments: Yeh life returns to the residential real estate market in May 2011.  The sold by signs have been telling the story of all the hard work done by sales people in March, April and May of this year. The 219 sales in May is also the best sales figure for the last 12 months and comes in a month of traditionally slowing sales as we enter the quieter winter market. SO if you have been waiting for the bottom of the market to steal a property from desperate seller you had better get your skates on as you may have missed the boat.

The big surprise of the month was the huge downturn in sales in Wellington (-43%) over the same month in 2010.  Christchurch is well down as would be expected but at 31 sales for the month activity is still happening in the market place as life goes go.

Hamilton, Tauraga and Dunedin are very much in static territory with minor variations over last year with Hamiltn and Tauranga up marginally and Duendin slightly down.