House prices nudge higher

House prices crept higher in November and are up 6% on a year ago.

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House prices nudged up slightly in November according to latest industry figures and are up more than 6 per cent on a year ago.

The Real Estate Institute's monthly housing price index increased by 0.2 percent to 3283 points in November.

In the three months to November, housing prices increased by 4.1 per cent.

Compared with 12 months ago the index increased by 6.6 per cent.

The index is put together using a technique known as stratification; an average of sale prices for common groups, rather than a raw median price, so is more likely to reflect genuine property price movements.

House prices are 2.9 per cent below their November 2007 peak.

In Auckland, house prices in November were 11.9 per cent above those in November 2008 with housing prices in Wellington up 4.7 per cent and Christchurch up by 5.7 per cent.

The residential section price index increased by 1.8 per cent in November.

Residential section prices are 0.3 per cent higher than the same month last year.

The Institute said median house prices have more than doubled over the past 10 years.

The national median of $355,000 for the month of November has increased more than 100 per cent on the corresponding figure ($174,000) for November 2000. The median price was   also up $17,500 or 5.2 per cent on the median price for November 2008.

The median price makes no adjustment for quality or size of homes sold.

Real Estate Institute president, Peter McDonald, says the residential property market in New Zealand appears 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.

- © Fairfax NZ News