Mortgagee index at record high

Mortgagee sales listings hit a record high in the week ended 8 September, a survey by interest.co.nz has found. Interest.co.nz follows properties listed as mortgagee sales on TradeMe and realestate.co.nz to compile a Residential Mortgagee Index. The index rose 11.9% from last week and is up 5.6% from a month ago. The index for the week ended 1 September 2008 was down from the previous two weeks but rose again this week. Mortgagee sales in New Zealand have been on a steady increase over the last few months. Interest.co.nz began following mortgagee sales listings from March 2008. Figures from Alastair Helm at realestate.co.nz showed listings remained steady during 2007 before jumping in 2008. The volume of houses listed for sale on the two websites is up slightly from last week, but is down 0.3% from a month ago. The index has shown a steady decline in on-line listings since its peak in April 2008. The rental property index remained high over the week. The rental index keeps track of on-line listings of houses for rent Interest.co.nz also keeps track on the number of residential property adverts on the two websites that contain the word "motivated" in them. The figure for the percentage of total adverts is steady from previous weeks at 33%.