First home

PHOTO: Auckland couple Queenie and Gagandeep boarded with a family for two years to help save a first-home deposit. Photo credit: Supplied.

After boarding with another family for two years and one year of visiting crowded open homes, an Auckland couple says the prospect of finally being homeowners “feels surreal”.

It comes as house prices continue to defy predictions, with realestate.co.nz chief executive Vanessa Taylor confirming the national mean asking price rose $89,575 year-on-year in February, up 12.7 percent year-on-year to $796,789.

A CoreLogic February housing affordability report shows in the last quarter of 2020, house prices surged 6.1 percent, while Infometrics figures show incomes rose just 1.3 percent. Nationally, the house price value-to-income ratio is at the highest level since late 2016, a 17-year record.

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