New figures show the average house price is up 5.2 percent on last November.
The Real Estate Institute statistics show the largest gains were in Auckland, up 10.6 per cent on November last year, followed by Northland - up 5.9 percent to $341,000.
The two largest drops in property values were at Central Otago Lakes, down 7.2 percent to $441,000 and Hawke’s Bay, down 6.0 percent to $275,000.
The statistics also show median house prices have more than doubled over the past 10 years - with the national median of $355,000 for the month of November increasing more than 100 percent on the corresponding figure ($174,000), for November 2000.
The Institute's President Peter McDonald says the figures are especially positive because the total number of houses sold is also up from about 4,000 to around 6,000 for the month.
He says the market seems to have stabilised after last month’s all-time high national figures.
“It’s been a long held belief that property doubles in value every decade. This trend has been borne out in this month’s analysis of median house prices for New Zealand,” Mr McDonald says.
The national median for days to sell in November was 33 compared with 31 in October 2009 and the sluggish 44 days in the corresponding period a year ago.
Sales were quickest in Southland at a snappy 20 median days, while in Wellington it was 28 median days and in Canterbury/Westland and Otago, the median days to sell was just 29. Northland was the slowest market, with houses taking a median of 58 days to sell.
“The residential property sales market has remained steady and I believe it will firm even further as the economy recovers,” Mr McDonald says.
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