House prices climb in Dec, but rate of increase stabilising

House prices climb in Dec, but rate of increase stabilising
Jan 15 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand house prices continued their climb to a record high in December, driven by price gains in Auckland and Canterbury due to restricted supply. However, a number of factors suggest this is unlikely to force a change to the official cash rate this year. December figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show the national median house price stood at $389,000, up 9.6 per cent on December 2011. The REINZ Stratified House Price Index, which smoothes out peaks and troughs in median prices, rose 6....