I didn't see this in Christchurch, New Zealand. Interest rates went up making mortgages harder to get. However house prices remained steady and you couldn't se

I didn't see this in Christchurch, New Zealand. Interest rates went up making mortgages harder to get. However house prices remained steady and you couldn't see much price reduction in the market because if someone has a house and a mortgage, they don't want to psychologically take a loss. Few people are willing to lose money. They can't buy in same market (downgrade) because so few people are selling and mortgages are harder to get. Mostly the few people selling are only selling because they are forced to due to their circumstances. The turnover (houses sold per month) dropped drastically. We don't have 30 year fixed. We have essentially variable rate interest rates (you can fix for up to 5 years (median fixes for 2 years) but after that the interest rate resets back to current market rate - you can fix again for a few years at current market).