On the listings front, the industry organisation says there was a record low in April with just 9673 properties coming on to the market -- a drop of 18 per cent when compared with March.
Andrea Rush, spokeswoman for property valuation firm QV, paints an even darker picture for home buyers in Auckland saying the city has continued its rapid price rise, with many areas seeing double digit increases in values since November.
"The QV Residential Price Movement Index shows the average value for the Auckland region has now broken into the $800,000s," she says.
"With net migration at a record 54,000 and still rising -- and half of migrants moving to Auckland -- home values in the Super City are likely to remain high and keep rising during 2015 as supply continues to outstrip demand."
Rush says Auckland continued to see a fast-paced rise in residential property values, with the number of sales in March reaching levels not seen since the last market peak in 2007.
Auckland City home values were led by Auckland City-South which saw increases of 5.5 per cent over the past three months (19.2 per cent year on year).
Mortgage rates
QV's Auckland valuer James Wilson says buyers are paying premium prices to get into the market and investors are taking advantage of low interest rates.
Meanwhile, the finance industry is hanging on every word of Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler for a hint of an interest rate cut.
The OCR is 3.5 per cent, with many commentators expecting a cut rather than a rise. But when? Wheeler says any change will depend on how inflationary pressures evolve. Inflation is 0.1 per cent -- a hair away from zero growth.
A cut in interest rates would stimulate the economy. But while lower interest may be good for the country as a whole, they could drive Auckland property prices even higher.
Property crash
There will not be a property crash anytime soon in Auckland according to BNZ economist Tony Alexander.
The Prime Minister may secretly be hoping the city's property boom will fix itself, but no amount of hair-pulling will lower real estate prices -- we have too many people chasing too few properties.
As Alexander points out this week in his Sporadic newsletter, there have been only two times in recent memory that house prices in Auckland have dipped -- 1998 and 2008.
The first was caused by the Asian Economic Crisis, the second by the Global Financial Crisis. Alexander predicts the next housing correction will come in 2018, the year he forecasts another economic meltdown. If he's correct, you have three years to reduce your debts.
