According to the latest REINZ figures, the median house price in Rotorua is $229,500.
Rotorua's average weekly pay cheque after tax for people aged 30-34 is $759.10 - up from $744.01 in August last year.
The results come ahead of looming Reserve Bank lending restrictions on high risk mortgages - set to take effect today.
The Mortgage Centre Rotorua owner Graeme Leigh said local first-home buyers had "basically given up".
Rotorua housing was affordable, but banks reneging on pre-approved loans had left buyers "very upset".
Despite the Reserve Bank's October 1 deadline, Mr Leigh said he noticed Rotorua banks putting the brakes on lending before the changes were even announced.
"How do you explain that to a client?
"That's not easy at all. It's pretty disappointing."
However, the changes were set to make Rotorua housing even more affordable, he said.
Nationally, housing affordability worsened from 55.4 per cent in July to 56 per cent in August after national house prices rose $5000 to $390,000. The median weekly pay packet for the 30-34 age bracket is $808.54 - up from $794.80 a year ago.
Auckland was the toughest location for first-home buyers, where it took 92.2 per cent of an after-tax income to afford a house in South Auckland, and 102.1 per cent on the North Shore.
Affordability on the North Shore is the worst it has been in more than three years, the report found.
The cheapest place to buy is still Wanganui, with 27.7 per cent affordability.
Finance Minister Bill English has admitted that up to 8000 families, couples and individuals trying to get into their first home will be blocked by the new rules.
But Labour finance spokesman David Parker said the number would probably be higher, with Aucklanders the hardest hit.
