Harcourts figures show house prices already down 30%

Figures from real estate agent agency group Harcourts show their national average sale price has fallen almost 30% from the peaks around the end of 2007. The average prices seen by Harcourts dropped 31% in Auckland, 30% in Wellington and 26% in Christchurch. On their specialist website www.helpsellmyproperty.net, Harcourts show their average house sale price in New Zealand fell 27% between their peak in December 2007 (NZ$450,000) and September 2008 (NZ$329,210). In contrast, the REINZ median price for New Zealand fell by 10% between December (NZ$511,830) and September (NZ$458,710). The published REINZ median price for New Zealand fell 4.3% between December (NZ$345,000) and September (NZ$330,000), while the REINZ median for Auckland fell 9% from December (NZ$460,000) to September (NZ$420,000). In Auckland, the average Harcourts sale price fell from its peak of NZ$618,230 in December to NZ$425,160 in September, a fall of 31%. REINZ figures show a fall of only 10% 9%. Auckland real estate agent Barfoot & Thompson reported their average sale price in September was NZ$495,873. In Wellington, Harcourts average prices fell 30% from their peak of NZ$467,570 in January 2008 to NZ$328,530 in September. The REINZ figures show an fall in the published median over this time of 2% 5%. Average Christchurch sale prices for Harcourts transactions fell 26% between November 2007 (NZ$506,790) and September (NZ$377,540). REINZ's median price fell 10% 7.6%.

Harcourts New Zealand has 185 offices nationwide, with around 45 in Auckland, almost 20 in Wellington and over 30 in Christchurch. Hat tip to interest.co.nz commenter Andy Hamilton for the heads up. FYI we have corrected some figures (identified above) as we cannot verify Harcourts' reporting of average REINZ figures and have instead used REINZ's own published figures for medians. The point remains though that Harcourts reporting of average prices is vastly different to the REINZ reports.