Promising signs are emerging from Northland's languishing real estate market.
Home listings in wintry July - traditionally one of the more difficult months to sell property - peaked at 418 new property listings - up 25 per cent on July last year.
Local real estate agents have been relentlessly positive during the economic downturn but believe sellers are now recognising the good signals - more buyers out in the market due to favourable finance conditions and lower property prices.
Real Estate Institute Northland spokeswoman Marilyn Gamman said property listings had lifted because vendors were realising there were more buyers than 12 months ago.
"Sellers are realising the market is bottoming out and this is a good time to buy, so they are listing their properties," she said.
"Also, real estate companies have been low on stock, so they are now actively seeking new listings."
The national mean asking price last month was $429,181 - up 1 per cent on $425,783 in June and up 4 per cent on July last year.
Michael Springford, the owner and manager of Whangarei LJ Hooker Real Estate, said it was the best environment for years in which to buy rental properties, with many mortgagee sales and interest rates at the lowest they had been "for yonks".
Whangarei real estate sales were still affected by the tough economic climate, with city house sales dropping from 1553 in 2005 to 612 last year, and 340 to June 30 this year.
Mr Springford said he had recently shown coastal properties to people who were considering moving from Australia and Christchurch.
The company's sales manager, Paul Beazley, said he had been dealing with Northlanders who had flown home from their jobs in Western Australian mines to look at properties they could now afford to buy here.
While listings have been rising, a Realestate.co.nz report on the national property market says that the Northland mean asking price of $358,710 was 11.2 per cent lower than in June.
Only Nelson, where the price fell 16.8 per cent, had a lower regional assessment in a Realestate.co.nz report.
Alistair Helm, chief executive of Realestate.co.nz, a website owned by the Real Estate Institute and six of the country's largest real estate companies, said recent months had placed some stress on buyers, with the shortage of new listings along with higher numbers of sales placing the market's favour firmly in sellers' hands.
But July had not been a bad month for buyers. "The clear signal from the July data was one of stability."