The median house price in the Taupō District fell to $820,000 in March. Photo / Getty Images
After hitting a record high of $900,000 in February, the Taupō District's median house price fell to $820,000 in March.
At the same time, the volume of houses sold in the district dropped from 73 to 63. In March 2021, the median price was $685,000 and the volume of houses sold was 99.
Local experts say there is still plenty of activity in the housing market, it has just lost some of the frenzy and panic we have seen in the last two years.
Mike Pero Real Estate Taupō franchise owner Greg Currie says he does not think prices have dropped, but expectations have.
"That's based on the fact that the frenzy has gone," he says.
"Where you could expect a premium as a vendor, you can't necessarily now. However, I honestly believe that the market hasn't softened as much as some say it has.
"My parents, for example, when I was a teenager, borrowed money at 25 per cent. A 6 per cent interest rate is not a high-interest rate for New Zealand, it's just a lot higher than it's been the last couple of years."
Greg says there is still plenty of interest in houses that are on the market.
"We've had very slack attendance at open homes, they've dropped by about 90 per cent, and Omicron helped that, people were a bit scared. At the same time, our private viewings and appointments have gone up by almost the same amount.
"There's still a lot of activity and I'd rather work in this market to be fair. You can have stock on your shelves and everyone has a bit more choice - that panic has gone. Price expectations have dropped, because they had to, but not necessarily sale prices yet."
He says the motto in real estate has always been "the best time to buy real estate is five years ago" and he does not expect that to change anytime soon.
"That will be the same tomorrow and it will be the same in another five years. A house is still the best investment."
Bayleys Real Estate Taupō branch manager Yvette Westerman says the median price is not always the best measure of how the housing market is actually performing.
"I don't really read into the monthly median figure that much because it just depends what sold that month," she says.
"That month before, there would've been holiday home and waterfront sales. A lot of sales over a million or in that bracket skews the figure a bit."
Yvette says there could be a number of reasons for the volume of sales dropping.
"Interest rates are going up, people are now on holiday, all those sorts of things. The total number of listings is slowly rising, which leads to less competition, but at the moment the market is really spiky.
"We still have some crazy sales - last week we had an auction with the most bids we've ever had on a property auction at 178 bids. That property sold well in excess of the vendor's expectations.
"We're finding some listings don't go for what they would've six months ago, but others are well in excess, so it is quite a varied market."
The median house price for the Waikato region as a whole in March was up 1.2 per cent to $845,000.
REINZ Waikato regional director Neville Falconer says three districts in Waikato reached record median prices: South Waikato District ($577,500), Thames-Coromandel District ($1,155,000), and Waipa District ($920,000).
"The market in Waikato is beginning to slow," he says.
"Agents reported that while residential properties are still selling, contracts have more conditions attached, which is impacting the pace of sales. There is also more caution from buyers who can now take their time and add further conditions.
"As a result, the median days to sell increased 10 days from 24 days in March 2021 to 34 this year, and the number of sales decreased by 38.8 per cent.
"Stock in the Waikato market has increased 70.5 per cent year-on-year. Vendors' expectations are still above where the market sits, but this is slowly starting to shift as they begin to understand the market conditions."