Timaru Property Report – May 2011
The median house price for Timaru rose again slightly in April to $229,000 compared to $220,000 in March 2011 and $238,000 in April 2010.
Please note that because of the relatively small size of our market, our median tends to fluctuate substantially. Therefore the long-term trend line tends to be a more helpful indication of what prices are doing.
You may have also noticed that we have changed our trend line, which now represents a 6 monthly moving average.
The volume of house sales in Timaru dropped back to 43 in April compared to 55 in March 2011 and was also a big fall from the 57 sales recorded in April last year. Over the last 12 month period we have averaged 39 sales per month.
To put this figure into perspective, the average number of sales per month for the previous 15 years (Jan 95 – Dec 09) was 62 sales. Therefore volume of sales over the last 12 months is down approx 37% from what we would call a normal market.
You will note that we have also added a 6 month moving average trend line to this graph.
The median days to sell rose to 89 days in April 2011 from 81 in March 2011. We estimate there are currently 368 houses being advertised for sale in the Timaru residential market. This is a drop from the estimated 385 last month and shows that new listings were in short supply for the month of April.
Comment:
Last month we posed the question as to whether we would see higher volumes of sales going forward? Our prediction was “Yes” and although Aprils sales did not really back us up, for the following reasons we are still of the opinion that sales will increase. The current low interest rates and upward pressure on rent is starting to attract the investors back into our market. More and more people are becoming aware of the fundamental long term shortage of housing in New Zealand. This coupled with the prospect of Christchurch buyers flooding our market once they sort their affairs up the road, has many locals realising that now could be the right time to jump back in. Finally, at the coal face we are experiencing increased buyers enquiry and a shortage of fresh new listings to show those buyers.
You can download a pdf version of this report here
May 11 2011 05:10 pm | Uncategorized
Timaru property report « Professionals Perspectives on 01 Jun 2011 at 12:41 pm #
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