Hawke's Bay's property market had started to warm with the advent of spring, according to industry professionals.
Asking prices have eased in the last month amid a surge of new property listings.
The NZ Property Report, compiled by Realestate.co.nz revealed there was 464 new listings on the Hawke's Bay market in October - 34 per cent more than in September.
Tremain Real Estate director Simon Tremain said October had been "very good". Vendors had been realistic with their asking prices and buyers were prepared to pay for reasonably-priced homes.
"Not silly stuff, but buyers are no longer expecting a bargain and are prepared to pay."
Plenty of new properties had come onto the market and a good number of new buyers had kept the market moving along, he said.
The annual spring splurge of market activity - missing from the past few years - was starting to return, Mr Tremain said.
The Property Report showed average asking prices for New Zealand homes hit a record high last month.
Mr McKenzie said seller confidence was reflected in the number of new listings, which was up significantly in October, at 12,688 - 14 per cent more than in September and 12 per cent up year-on-year.
But Mr McKenzie said with the debate around housing affordability, sellers may start to lower their price
House buying upexpectations if more homes flooded the market, favouring buyers.
Harcourts chief executive Hayden Duncan said there were pockets of the country where sellers' expectations were too high and buyers were waiting for new lower-priced stock to come onto the market. But that was not a nationwide trend.
"In a number of inner-city suburbs in Auckland things are elevating to a point where owners have the right to be optimistic and are achieving what anyone might normally or reasonably think is a unrealistic price."
However, in other areas such as Wellington, demand wasn't as strong so vendors were dropping asking prices to meet demand.
"It's a very mixed market and to generalise across New Zealand is somewhat misleading.
"The only trend that we've seen in every market that we operate in throughout New Zealand is that auctions are becoming the preferred method for people transacting in real estate." Figures from Ray White Group show October 2012 had been the strongest month since the global financial crisis in March 2007.
By the numbers
$348,344 - Average Hawke's Bay asking price for October
-2.1 - percentage change from September
464 - New listings in October
34.1 - Per cent more listings than in September
$445,529 - National average asking price for October
Source: Realestate.co.nz