Housing Prices Relative to Consumer Prices: An Analysis

This report was published by the AUT Policy Observatory. It’s abstract is

This is an update of a note I wrote in April 2007. It uses a longer housing price series that starts in 1962 (instead of 1980) and finishes in 2016 (instead of 2007). It shows that while historically housing prices have risen a little faster than consumer prices, the increase has been sharper since 2001 (except for the period when the Global Financial Crisis impacted). It goes on to use the historical record to speculate on possible patterns of future prices. The focus is on house prices for the whole of New Zealand. There can be considerable divergences between regions.
The full report is here.