New Zealand’s[B] House Prices[/B] advanced for the fourth consecutive month, adding 0.7% through August according to Quotable Value (QV), a government valuation agency. In annual terms, prices fell -2.8% from a year before, the smallest decline in 13 months. QV valuation manager Glenda Whitehead said that, “The housing market is strongly driven by confidence and that appears to be returning.” Indeed, Westpac’s measure of consumer sentiment rose to the highest since the fourth quarter of 2007 in the three months through June. Rising home values may create a perception of growing wealth among property owners, helping to boost consumer spending and by extension spur overall economic growth. New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English has said the economy will begin to expand again in the second half of this year. On balance, however, this may prove of little help to the New Zealand Dollar considering
the central bank has pledged to keep interest rates low for now , saying they will remain “at or below current levels” until the latter part of 2010.