Auckland's housing bubble continues to skew all facets of national real estate data, surging to new heights in both house values and selling expectations, while the rest of New Zealand languishes.
Not only has Auckland's price crisis pushed Quotable Value (QV) values to a record $800,000 in April, but the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's website Realestate.co.nz says Auckland seller expectations increased to a record high of $789,581.
QV national spokesperson Andrea Rush said the Auckland market had risen 14.6% year on year, 4.3% during the past three months and 48.1% since the last housing peak in 2007.
''The steepening of the national index is indicative of the sharp rise in Auckland values over the past six months,'' Ms Rush said.
Nationally, residential property QV values increased 8.3% during the past year and 2.6% during the past three months, or 22.4% above 2007.
Provincial values were buoyed during summer.
Some areas showed moderate rises, but others remained flat or down slightly.
Around the South Island, the Clutha district had values rise 3.8% since February, values rose in the MacKenzie district by 2.9% and Queenstown Lakes district also had values climb 2.6% during the same period.
QV's Dunedin registered valuer Duncan Jack said there have been ''nominal value changes'' in the Dunedin market during the past three months, but buyer demand remained steady, as did sales activity.
''The majority of the buying and selling activity is within the lower value ranges - the under $300,000 part of the market.
''However there is still good demand for homes in the mid to upper ranges above $300,000, as well,'' Mr Jack said.
Dunedin City values decreased slightly by 0.5% during the past three months, but were still 0.6% higher than April last year, he said.
Dunedin-Central and North values were flat during the past three months, Dunedin-Taieri values decreased by 0.1%, Dunedin-South were down by 1.2% and Dunedin-Peninsula and Coastal values also decreased, by 1.1%.
In the separate Realestate.co data released yesterday, asking prices nationally rose 1.4% for the fourth consecutive month to a new record high of $521,729, but the majority of the increase was driven by Auckland, which booked a 3% gain to a new high of $789,581.
''No other region experienced a new record in average asking price for April,'' Realestate.co chief executive Brendon Skipper, of Auckland, said.
While most regions were flat or decreased in asking prices, Central Otago had the largest overall plunge, falling by 17.3% to $604,729, with listing numbers on a year ago falling 43% to 161, while in Southland its average asking price fell 11% to $232,549, and listings were down 7%.
Otago asking prices were down 1.2% to $298,691 and booked a listing gain of 5.8%, to 329 houses on a year ago, while Canterbury price fell 0.8% to $463,175 and listing numbers rose 3.8% to 1257.
Mr Skipper said the ''robust average asking prices'' remained at record levels, because of the drop in listing numbers combined with the inventory of listings, which nationally meant all houses on the market could be sold within 21 weeks; a record low, compared with the six-year long-term average of stock being available for 36 weeks.
