Auckland driving rise in house selling price expectations, in contrast to rural "hangover", report says (Update 1)

The upward trend in home sellers' price expectations is being driven by the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, while rural New Zealand faces an extended property market "hangover", the latest market report from realestate.co.nz says. (Update 1 includes report highlights.) The Auckland market in particular is driving rises in asking prices, realestate.co.nz CEO Alister Helm said. The latest report on the month of November showed an ongoing shortage in properties listed in the main centres, with rural New Zealand being hit with slower sales coupled with a swelling of inventory levels, Helm said. "While national price expectations continue to rise, this is mainly driven by the Auckland market. In the provinces by contrast, slow sales during October and November increased the available stock of properties up to an inventory level of just over 51 weeks," he said. Here are the highlight's from the November property market report. Realestate.co.nz lists over 94% of all listings currently marketed by real estate agents in New Zealand:

Commentary The steady growth in listings seen over the past 3 months have begun to outpace the rate of sales of property across the country leading to a further growth in inventory levels in November "“ taking the equivalent of stock on the market to 36 weeks. That is to say, based on the current rate of sale, it would take 36 weeks (8.3 months) to clear all the stock. The lowest point of this property cycle was reached in June when inventory reached a low of 31.5 weeks (7.3 months) "“ since then it has grown for 5 successive months. The current rate of sales of property from REINZ statistics shows a 12 month total (Nov 08 "“ Oct 09) of 67,197, this is up 10% on the prior 12 month period but down 31% when compared to the 12 months to October 2007. This growth of inventory is not even across the country with the major centers seeing inventory falls whereas provincial NZ is where the significant inventory rises are being seen. The biggest rises are being seen in the Central North Island, Northland, Marlborough, Gisborne and Southland. Asking Price The vendor's expectation of asking price for properties coming onto the market in November grew slightly to $419,586. This price represented a 1.9% rise in asking price when compared to the moving average of the past 3 months (Aug/Sep/Oct). The asking price of new listings in November last year was $404,913 representing a 3.6% year on year increase. New Listings The number of new listings coming onto the market rose slightly to 13,857, from the October total of 13,550. Despite the uplift in listings during November the level of new listings over the past 12 months continues to show a 11% fall with 147,813 new listings in the recent 12 months as compared to 165,690 in the prior 12 months spanning 2007/8. Inventory The overall level of available inventory as measured by equivalent weeks of sales grew again in November "“ the 5th consecutive month of rise from 31.5 weeks in June to the current level of 36.0 weeks. Whilst inventory tends to rise approaching Christmas the levels this year are up on the 33.9 weeks in 2007 but down on the extreme peak of 52.6 weeks in November last year "“ a time when property sales stagnated.