Wanganui remains the most affordable place in the country for first home buyers, even though house prices are now 19 per cent higher than last year.
According to figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), the median price of a house in Wanganui last month was $165,000, a $5000 increase from October and $26,000 increase from November a year ago.
The regular Roost home loan affordability index measures first home buyer affordability by tracking the median income for a working couple aged 25 to 29 with no children, in each urban district.
It estimates the percentage of their income that would be required to service a mortgage for a home at the lower quartile selling price for that district.
Ele Thomson of Roost Mortgage Brokers said if the repayments were 40 per cent or less of their take-home pay, they were considered affordable. Areas where mortgage payments would take up more than 40 per cent of a couple's take home-pay were considered unaffordable.
Ms Thomson said Wanganui remained the most affordable place, because a mortgage would take only 10.7 per cent of take-home pay.
Servicing the mortgage on a home priced in the lower quartile in Auckland would take more than half of a combined take-home home pay. In Queenstown, it would be 44 per cent and 37 per cent in Christchurch.
She said of the 24 urban districts where house prices and incomes were monitored for the survey, housing became less affordable in 17 of them and became slightly more affordable in seven in November.
"The sharp jump in house prices in November will make life more difficult for first home buyers, but the good news is that competition between banks for mortgage business is intense," Ms Thomson said.
Mortgage brokers were reporting some exceptionally good financing deals being offered at the moment, which would help first home buyers get into the home they wanted.