NZPA | Thursday November 26 2009 – 03:06pm
Average weekly spending on housing was unchanged in the year to June, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) says.
The household economic survey put average weekly housing cost spending at $231, while the median was $156.
For all households, average weekly spending on mortgage principal repayments fell $3 from the June 2008 year to $37 in the June 2009 year, SNZ.
Mortgage interest payments were down $2 to $80, but property rate payments were up $2 to $25 and property and ground rent payments lifted $6 to $78.
Median weekly mortgage payments declined 4.8 percent to $312, from $328 the previous year, having been $256 in the June 2007 year.
In the latest year, 120,000 or 25 percent of households with a mortgage paid more than $500 a week in mortgage payments, down from 28 percent or 135,700 households the year before, SNZ said.
The median weekly mortgage payment in the Auckland region was $414 in the latest year, in Wellington it was $340, and in Canterbury $318.
The 31 percent of households who did not own the dwelling they lived in, and paid rent, was unchanged from a year earlier.
For households paying rent median weekly spending on rent was $241, up 9.5 percent from $220 in the June 2008 year.
Houses in Auckland paid the highest median rent at $300 a week, which was $50 above the next highest amount in the Wellington region.
Nationally, total housing costs accounted for 15.3 percent of total household regular income, down from 16.1 percent in the June 2008 year and 15.6 percent in the June 2007 year.
Regionally, housing costs to household income ratios ranged from 12.9 percent for the South Island, excluding Canterbury, to 16.3 percent for Auckland.
Among renters, 44 percent of households who did not own their dwelling spent 25 percent or more of their household income on housing costs, with 19 percent spending more than 40 percent of income on housing costs.
In contrast, 19 percent of households who owned the dwelling they lived in or held that dwelling in a family trust, spent 25 percent or more of their household income on housing costs, with 6 percent spending 40 percent or more.
The median annual household income from all regular sources was $63,867 in the June 2009 year, up 8.5 percent from $58,888 a year earlier.
Average annual income was up 5.6 percent to $78,876.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/spendin…pending-115502
