Barfoot & Thompson's (B&T) average and median selling prices both declined for the second month in a row in May, while the amount of residential stock the real estate agency had for sale hit a 17-year high.
B&T is Auckland's largest residential real estate agency by a significant margin, Its latest results suggest ongoing weakness in the Auckland housing market as it heads into winter.
B&T's average selling price was $1,085,751 in May, down from $1,110,689 in in April and $1,145,045 in March.
The average price has now declined by $96,879 (-8.2%) since May last year, and is down $192,896 (-15.1%) compared to the record high of $1,278,647 set in December 2021.
The median selling price was $928,500 in May. That's down from $934,000 in April and $970,000 in March. It's now down $83,400 (-8.2%) compared to May last year, and down $311,500 (-25.1%) compared to the record high of $1,240,000 set in November 2021.
The weakness in price appears to be substantially due to the large amount of stock on the market.
B&T received 1855 new listings in May, the most in the month of May since 2016. However, it sold only 1072 residential properties in May.
Although those sales were the highest for the month of May in four years, it wasn't enough to prevent stock numbers skyrocketing.
The high number of new listings compared to sales pushed the total residential stock on the agency's books up to 6083. That's a 5.6% increase from May last year, which means the B&T currently has the most homes for sale at this time of year since 2008, the year of the Global Financial Crisis.
That is likely to continue keeping a lid on prices, even as mortgage interest rates decline.
"The market is in one of those rare moments where prices are stalled and now represent better value for money than at any time in the last two to three years," Barfoot & Thompson Managing Director Peter Thompson said.
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