June house sales up from year ago

The real estate industry reported 5229 sales in June, up 654 from a year earlier but down 537 from May.
The decline from the previous month was broadly in line with normal seasonal patterns, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) said today.
The national median house price rose $10,000, or 2.9 percent, to $360,000, although the median price for Auckland eased slightly from May, down by $3000, but up $16,000 from the same time last year.
While volumes trended downwards from May, in line with the seasonal pattern, there was a strong lift in volumes compared to June 2010, Reinz said.
Nelson/Marlborough, Auckland and Waikato/Bay of Plenty all recorded sales increases of more than 20 percent compared to a year earlier.
Reinz chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said the June results showed activity levels were recovering slowly with prices more or less flat, but agents in many regions were indicating that the supply of properties was tightening.
``Rather than an influx of buyers, we are seeing very low levels of listings as sellers continue to sit on their assets,'' she said.
That was backed up by the latest BNZ-Reinz market survey of real estate agents, which also indicated that the shortage of listings was now the main reason holding buyers back from buying a property.
A net 34.2 percent of respondents cited a lack of suitable properties available for sale as the main reason holding buyers back, up from 22.4 percent in the previous month's survey.
Auckland, Manawatu/Wanganui, Canterbury/Westland and Taranaki were all reporting shortages of properties for sale. Similar concerns had not yet arisen in Northland, Hawke's Bay, Otago and Southland.
The national median days to sell changed by 1 day from 45 in May to 44 days in June. In June 2010 it was 45.
Canterbury/Westland recorded the shortest days to sell at 35 days followed by Auckland on 36 days and Southland the next shortest at 42 days. Northland recorded the longest number of days to sell at 78 days, with Taranaki next longest at 72 days, Reinz said.
The Reinz stratified median housing price index is up 1.3 percent for the month, up 0.6 percent for the past three months, and down 0.1 percent over the past year. It is 4.5 percent below the peak.