The Real Estate Market

 TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

A lot of people believe that property is slow to sell over the winter months, and therefore take their property off the market and reduce their chance of selling completely. We looked at the Kerikeri sales statistics since 2006 and found that listing your property in the winter could well be the best thing for you.

In 2006 more homes sold in the winter than in the summer season partly due to the peaking of the market, confidence in the business sector and the willingness of the banks to lend up to 95% on property and existing equity. Summer 2007 was the peak of the market with well over 100 homes sold in the Kerikeri School zone. Winter 2007 saw this number drop by 36% as we entered into the recession and property was hit hard by the lack of funds available from the lending institutes.

2008 was the hardest year for Kerikeri Real Estate due to a lack of investors, job losses and a rapid decline in new builds with land sales being just about non existent. Even during this tough economic climate the house sales only dropped by 26% during the winter.

2009 made 2008 look really bad with the summer market coming back and increased house sales by 43% compared to winter 2008. Here is the interesting part that winter 2009 was up 62% compared to winter 2008. We sold 13% more homes in the last year’s winter compared to the last years summer.

Our home sales in this years summer is down 17% compared to winter 2009. With the budget out of the way, further tax cuts in 2011, interest rates to be stable over the next 18 months, the rugby world cup attracting a lot of tourism around New Zealand we can be certain that things are looking up and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We believe that we are entering a reasonably solid financial environment where prices will stay stable for a while before they go up again. However values should not be confused with sales volume. With more buyers coming into the area than leaving we believe that this will gradually increase the number of properties selling in Kerikeri.

The team at Real is optimistic about the future and we believe that the next 6 months is a great opportunity to buy or sell your home. Just remember we can’t sell your property if we haven’t got it listed!

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