Mortgagee sales in Queenstown and Wanaka have climbed again, bucking the national trend.
Figures released by land information company Terralink International show there were 298 registered mortgagee sales across New Zealand during October, down 45 from September but still well above the 174 recorded in October last year.
The figures included 10 in the Queenstown Lakes district - up from four the previous month.
In Dunedin in October there were no mortgagee sales.
There had been three in September.
Overall, there were 15 mortgagee sales across Otago, up from 12 last month.
Central Otago recorded one mortgagee sale in October (there were none in September), while the Waitaki district had four, up from one.
There were none in the Clutha district, down from four.
Terralink managing director Mike Donald said he expected the numbers to remain high for a while yet, despite October's decline.
"It's a mistake to think that a decrease this month means that mortgagee sales are set to return to pre-recession levels.
There's a slight easing in October but when you look at the whole picture you'll see the numbers remain at an all-time high.
It's still a volatile situation and the numbers of mortgagee sales we have been seeing shows the length of time it takes to work through the financial stress of the recession."
The percentage of mortgagee sales from individual homeowners with only one property had been climbing, Mr Donald said.
"These are the people who we'd probably think of as the `Mum and Dad' homeowners.
They now make up nearly one in four of the total mortgagee sales in New Zealand, or 24%.
"As the year has gone on, and spending has decreased, and redundancies have increased, more and more ordinary New Zealanders have been affected by the recession.
Forced sales of their homes has unfortunately been a consequence for some."
Regions hardest hit in October were Auckland and Waikato, while Otago, Southland and Taranaki all experienced increases.
Mortgagee sales accounted for almost 5% of the total national property sales in October.
