Auckland houses sold for an average $505,301 in January, down 8.6 percent on December and up 0.5 percent on January 2009, according to real estate company Barfoot & Thompson.
"This reflects that the buyers of higher priced properties tend to be away on holiday during January, rather than house prices actually falling," said managing director Peter Thompson. The number of sales in January was 583, up 13.2 percent on January last year.
"While the average sales price is down 8.6 percent on that achieved in December, this was not unexpected, as there is traditionally a retreat in prices during January.
"In 2009 the fall back between January and December was 1.3 percent, in 2008 7.5 percent and in 2007 9.2 percent." The number of new listings at 1118, is up 22.3 percent on December and up 21.1 percent on January 2009.
NZPA