A recent quarterly survey has found house buyers are becoming more optimistic about the market, with only a net 8 percent thinking now is a bad time to buy, down from 11 percent three months ago.
The ASB Housing Confidence Survey for the three months ended in October found a net 48 percent of buyers expect house prices to rise over the next 12 months.
The number of people concerned about interest rate hikes is dropping, with a net 55 percent thinking interest rates will rise over the next year, compared with 70 percent three months ago.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley said buyers had noticed the Reserve Bank's changing position on interest rates.
"We have seen that people's expectations for interest rate increases have ebbed a little bit and that will be in response to the signal the Reserve Bank's been giving in recent months that interest rates aren't likely to go up for some time yet," he said.
Mr Tuffley said price expectations were down a bit from a peak last year but were certainly pretty resilient.
