Even though house sales for the year to February were the lowest 12-month total since November 1992, there are growing signs that the market has bottomed out.
We referred to the positive figures for housing last week (click here for that story), when February sales figures showed a distinct pick-up. BNZ points out that sales over the last three months (in rough seasonally adjusted terms) were up seven per cent on the previous three months. The bank also notes that the annual rate of decline has been easing recently to an average 4.4 per cent in the past quarter from -17.5 per cent in the three months to November.
Overall household borrowing has also begun to rise, with lending up 1.1 per cent in February after a 0.2 per cent fall in January. There was $300 million worth of new lending to households last month, $39 million more than February 2000 and the first month to top the previous year's total since October 1999.
However, not all that lending is for mortgages. Splitting it into housing and non-housing, the housing growth rate was down slightly from 5.6 per cent in January to 5.5 per cent in February.
But back to those February house sales. More homes and sections were sold than the previous month in ten out of eleven regions, adding up to a national total of 6,182 (compared with 4,741 sales in January). The median sales price nation-wide eased slightly, down $1,500 from January to $173,500.
Median sales prices for each region were as follows:
| Region | February 2000 | January 2001 | February 2001 | | ------------------------ | ----------------- | ---------------- | ----------------- | | Northland | $131,000 | $149,000 | $156,000 | | Auckland | $240,000 | $240,000 | $247,000 | | Waikato/BOP/Gisborne | $156,000 | $160,500 | $163,000 | | Hawkes Bay | $127,000 | $136,000 | $128,000 | | Manawatu/Wanganui | $112,000 | $105,000 | $113,000 | | Taranaki | $112,500 | $106,500 | $100,000 | | Wellington | $184,000 | $195,000 | $189,050 | | Nelson/Marlborough | $145,750 | $152,000 | $146,500 | | Canterbury/Westland | $141,250 | $142,000 | $147,000 | | Otago | $96,000 | $109,000 | $101,500 | | Southland | $82,750 | $106,000 | $79,000 | | New Zealand total | $171,000 | $175,000 | $173,500 |
Total dwellings: median price comparisons. Figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand
