The over-heated Auckland housing market appears to finally have run out of puff, with the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand's median Auckland selling price dropping by $50,000 (-6.5%) last month.

According to the REINZ, the median selling price of homes sold in the Auckland region last month was $720,000, compared to $770,000 in December.

However January's median was still up 9.1% compared with January last year.

There was also a big drop in the number of sales, with 1526 Auckland homes being sold by REINZ members in January, down 13.5% compared with January last year.

The areas that were most affected by the decline in prices were the central Auckland suburbs that fell within the boundaries of the former Auckland City Council prior to the super city amalgamation.

Within those areas, the median selling price declined from $867,000 in December to $790,000 in January, a slide of $77,000 (-8.9%) while the number of sales was down 13.6% compared to a year earlier.

That was followed by Manukau where the median price slid by 7.9% for the month to $700,000 from $760,00 in December, Waitakere where the median selling price dropped from $717,500 in December to $685,000 in January (-4.5%), and North Shore where the median price dropped from $910,000 in December to $870,000 in January (-4.4%).

Rodney was the only district within Auckland to go against the trend, recording a 6.5% increase in the median selling price which rose from $745,000 in December to $793,750 in December.

Prices also dropped considerably in most other parts of the country, including the so-called "halo" cities like Hamilton and Tauranga which have been attracting Auckland investors seeking higher yields, which has helped to push up prices.

In Hamilton the median price dropped from $449,500 in December to $388,000 in January (-13.7%) and in Tauranga the median dropped from $470,000 in December to $440,000 in January (-6.4%).

In the Wellington region the median price dropped from $436,000 in December to $394,000 in January (-9.6%) and in Christchurch the median price was unchanged at $440,000.

Other cities to record declines in January's median selling price compared to December were Whangarei (-3.1%), Napier (-4.3%), Hastings (-2%), Palmerston North (-5.3%), Whanganui (-11.5%), New Plymouth (-1.2%), Nelson (-1.2%), Timaru (-6.2%), and Dunedin (-2.9%).

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