August mortgagee sales slip back from record highs

A total of 241 mortgagee sales were recorded in the month of August as reported by Terralink – down from the peak of 321 reported in July. This takes the year-to-date figure to 1,824.

When compared to this time last year the monthly total shows an increase of 141% whilst the year-to-date shows a 285% – the year-to-date figure of Jan to August in 2008 was just 641 sales.

The decline from the peak was in someways expected as the lead indicator of mortgagee listings as tracked on realestate.co.nz had been witnessing a stabilising in the stock level of mortgagee listings by real estate agents for a number of months. The number of listings of mortgagee residential properties peaked at just over 400 in the first few months of this year and currently stands at somewhere over 300. It should be noted that the mortgagee sales reported by Terralink do include non-residential sales and this accounts for the overlap of sales to listings as shown in the chart below.

The mortgagee property sales not only show large actual numbers but also have risen to levels over the past 18 months that represent a small but significant component of all residential sales. The chart below track the past 14 years and shows the actual sales in each year for the first 8 months of each year represented as the proportion of all residential sales in those periods.