House prices in Tauranga are remaining steady while they have slipped in other parts of the country, according to the latest QV Valuations figures.
Russell Oliver, of the Tauranga QV office, reported that property values have held over the month of October.
But he said "we will need at least a fewmonths of flat or improving values for the market to be deemed stable."
Nationally, QV said values continued to gradually decline over the three months ending October.
Values first rose 2.8 per cent from October 2009 to March this year before falling back 1.6 per cent since March.
As a result, values are still 1.1 per cent above last year but that gap continues to close, said Jonno Ingerson, QV.co.nz research director.
He said values were now 5.5 per cent below the market peak of late 2007.
"The low sales we have seen all year continued through October, with sales well below both last year and the long term average," Mr Ingerson said.
"There is no sign of the traditional spring surge in sales and we don't expect any significant increase in sales before the New Year.
"In most areas there are plenty of properties for sale, but many of these have been on the market for some time," he said.
Mr Oliver said while many centres in the country showed some improvement in values during the last 12 months, Tauranga and the Western Bay district lagged behind.
"Looking back, values have basically trended downwards, while fluctuating on a monthly basis," he said.
Values in Tauranga for the three months ending October were 2.5 per cent below the same time last year, after falling from 1.8 per cent for the period ending September.
In the Western Bay district including Katikati, Omokoroa and Te Puke, values slipped from a gain of 2.2 per cent in September to growth of 0.3 per cent in the three-month period ending October. The latest average selling price in Tauranga is $408,208 and in Western Bay $383,894.
