North Shore house prices up in booming market

A buoyant housing market has pushed the median value of North Shore homes up by 10 per cent in a year.

The median price for a home in North Shore City is now $300,000, up from $272,000 a year ago.

And unlike other parts of Greater Auckland, the number of houses being sold on the Shore continue to rise in September, according to figures released yesterday by the Real Estate Institute of NZ.

In that month, 526 houses were sold in North Shore City, up from 514 in August.

In most other parts of Auckland, the number of houses sold eased slightly on a month earlier.

House prices remained strong in most parts of New Zealand compared with a year before, particularly in Northland, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

The institute's national president, Graeme Woodley, said that while the number of houses sold in September had dropped on the previous month, both total sales and the median house price were well above figures of a year before.

The national median house price was $185,000 in September, when 7943 houses were sold.

In September last year, 5604 houses sold for a median price of $173,000.

Mr Woodley said there was still strong demand for housing because of increasing immigration and because people wanted investment properties. A fall in interest rates was also boosting demand.

He said it was not unusual for house sales to be strong at this time of the year.

"For most regions this tracks the seasonal trend for improved sales at the beginning of spring. The current shortage of listings appears to be the only inhibiting factor to sales levels."

The median house price in Auckland is now $273,000, up $9000 on a year ago. In Northland the median house price is $169,000 and in Waikato/Bay of Plenty and Gisborne, the median house price is $168,750.

Overall in Auckland, 2799 houses sold in September, down from 2873 in August. In Auckland City the median house price is $305,000, in Waitakere it is $220,000 and in Manukau it is $284,400.