Auckland house prices bad sign

There should not be too many surprises in the latest set news on house prices in Auckland.

While the fall in the number of sales was huge, 52% on a year-on-year basis it shows, I think, that there is a huge gap between sellers’ expectations (over-inflated) and buyers’ offers.

Added to that getting finance is proving to be a much tougher proposition too.

What has been interesting is the angle from Barfoot and Thompson itself. It rightly points out that compared to last month the prices are up. However, it didn’t say, as this story does, that on a year-on-year basis (the same measure as used for volumes) prices are down.

The B&T numbers, while just Auckland, are useful as the firm is the largest in Auckland, and the numbers are often seen as an indicator of what is happening across the country.

The next set of data from QV and REINZ are due out in the week commencing April 14.