by Graham McIntyre | Jun 20, 2014 | House$ales
The easing trend in the number of sales continues, with all regions recording a decline in sales volume in May compared to 12 months ago, this being the second month in a row that we’ve seen this. We would normally expect an increase in sales in May compared to April, however, after taking seasonal factors into account the increase was just 1.6%. This leads us to conclude that the drop in sales in April due to the combination of Easter and ANZAC Day has not created an offsetting increase in sales in May. The weakening trend is also showing up in the number of days to sell. We are seeing an increase of a week or more in the number of days to sell between April and May. While the growth in the national median price is almost 10% compared to May 2013, the driving force for this increase are the Auckland and Canterbury/Westland regions. Together these two regions represent almost 53% of all sales, but contributed 76% of the uplift in the median price. Sales Volumes – REINZ data shows there were 6,572 unconditional residential sales in May, a 15.9% increase on sales recorded for April, but a 14.8% fall from May 2013. May is typically the third strongest sales month after March and November, however on a seasonally adjusted basis the level of sales was up only 1.6% compared to April and down 12.6% compared to May 2013. This may be indicative of fewer sales in the lower price brackets since the imposition of the LVR restrictions. Prices – The REINZ Stratified Housing Price Index, which adjusts...
