Residential sales hold

By Chris Hutching

Friday 21st June 2002

Latest residential real estate statistics for May reveal sales and values continued an easing trend in recent months although still well ahead of the same time last year.

Some regions bucked the trend, notably the Wakatipu area, which continued to enjoy record sales.

The national median price for May was $188,000, $1000 less than in April but $18,000 higher than the $170,000 median in May 2001. The national sales volume for May was 9061 compared with 9224 in April and the 6461 in May 2001.

The total value of sales nationwide in May 2002 of $2.1 billion fell from the $2.18 billion recorded in April but was well up on the $1.31 billion in May 2001.

Each region recorded wide variations and a detailed breakdown is available on the Real Estate Institute website. Median sale prices rose for five of the 11 regions - Auckland, Northland, Southland, Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki. The median price fell for Nelson-Marlborough, Waikato-BOP-Gisborne, Manawatu-Wanganui, Canterbury-
Westland, Wellington and Otago.

The Queenstown-Wanaka district stood out with more than 100 sales recorded for the fourth month in a row. During the last boom period in the mid- 1990s the record was 90 in a month.

Median values for dwellings were up 22% at $266,5000 and steady for sections at $118,500.

Comments from our readers

No comments yet