Dispute over Hawke's Bay home affordability report | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

The affordability of Hawke's Bay homes has deteriorated by the most in the country in the last quarter, according to a report released yesterday.

But local community leaders dispute the data, saying the information is flawed and Hawke's Bay is one of the most affordable in the country.

The Massey University Home Affordability Report was released yesterday, and said affordability in Hawke's Bay decreased by 11.4 per cent in the quarter ending November 2011.

The report reached the findings by comparing average weekly earnings with the median dwelling price and mortgage interest rates.

Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas said the report was "statistical rubbish" that did not take a number of Hawke's Bay-specific factors into account.

"What they have done is put a big broad brush over everything and said 'this is how the world works,' but the world is a lot more wiggly than that," he said. "This type of analysis is statistical rubbish."

Mr Douglas said the use of median house price was not a reliable measure for Hawke's Bay which had a lot of low-value and high-value properties.

"So the one in the middle goes up higher because of things like farms and you get a skewed number," he said. "My second problem is, yes, we do have lower wages, but we have an extremely high seasonal workforce, and some of them don't even live here. So it may look like 'they earn wages here, they are from Hawke's Bay' but they're not."

Mr Douglas said other statistics showed the opposite of the Massey University report. In the latest QV statistics, also released yesterday, the average house price in Hastings was nearly $100,000 below the national average.

The latest QV property trends based on price indices for December, showed the country's average house sale price was $398,411.

In Hastings the average was $304,888, and Napier the average was $332,554.

Hastings District Mayor Lawrence Yule said the quarterly figure was surprising given the annual increase in affordability to 5.6 per cent, that was also stated in the report.

"I couldn't believe what they said, if you look at the annual figure, we are still very affordable in terms of annual increases," he said. "We are still one of the most affordable places in New Zealand to build a home."

Emeritus Professor of Property Studies Bob Hargreaves, who compiled the report, said the quarterly increase in Hawke's Bay was due to an increase of house sale prices. "For Hawke's Bay the big difference, going on figures supplied by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, is median house price in the last quarter, that put it up on a quarterly basis," he said.

Mr Hargreaves said in smaller regions, house sales could alter the data significantly.