The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand is reporting the Western Bay of Plenty property market is on the decline with both sale prices and number of sales down.
The Tauranga city median sale price was down to $330,000 in June - a four year low for that month, and down from $340,000 in May. The number of sales in the city for the month was also down, listed at 81 for June from 97 sales in May.

It is a similar story for the Mount Maunganui and Papamoa property market with the median price of houses sold recorded at $375,150 for June, down from $390,000 from May. The number of sales in this area was fairly static in June with 54, compared with May when 57 were sold, but the 54 sold in June this year is considerably down on the 71 sales made in June 2009.
Rural areas in the Western Bay of Plenty also struggled for sales during June with 43 sold. This is down on the 47 sold in May and the 65 sold in June 2009. The median sale price was also down in the rural Western Bay, registering at $375,000 for June, down from $387,000 in May.
These decreases are in part attributed to traditional winter blues in the property sector, but there is no hiding that these numbers are down on recent winters also.
REINZ president Peter McDonald says people need to take care when reading these figures as they do not necessarily reflect property values.
He says they are purely the median of all sales during the month and can be impacted by the number of properties sold at either end of the price bracket.    
"The average gap between listing and selling prices last month (nationally) was relatively small at only four to five per cent, which indicates successful vendors are being realistic in assessing the market value of their home," says Peter.    
Nationally the property market struggled to move in June with the number of sales recorded as the second lowest in the last 12 months. There were 4575 sold, down from 5206 in May. Peter emphasises there is cause for some optimism though as the 4575 sold in June is up from the 4305 sold in June 2008.