Maitland's property market is showing signs of recovery after gradually dipping from last year's peak.
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Data from CoreLogic shows median house price in the Maitland local government area topped out at $465,632 in December - a more than 40 per cent rise in five years.
Prices have gradually come down since then, with the median price dropping to $445,303 in July before rising back to $450,339 in August and hitting $451,484 at the end of September. On September 30, the median price was 32.2 per cent higher than five years before.
Starr Partners sales manager James Rodrick said he believed the drop was more of a "levelling" and put the cooling market down to a reduction in the number of houses on the market this year.
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There were 1489 houses sold across Maitland in the 12 months to July 31, compared to 1782 in the year up to July 31, 2018.
"Stock levels are down 20-30 per cent," he said. "But over the last eight weeks there has been a far greater sentiment and more open homes.
"People who were sitting on the fence waiting for the world to end have come off the fence and are looking to sell."
Mr Rodrick said the negative press about the property market this year had made potential vendors reluctant, but believed the recent growth had been fuelled by interest rate cuts, the first of which happened in June.
"Historically it takes about four months to see the impact of an interest rate cut," he said.
"With the declining interest rates, we have seen more investors again.
"People are moving their money out of self-managed Super funds as they're not getting the return.
"We've also seen an increase in first home buyers. Twelve months ago it was heavily weighed towards investors, now it's a bit more balanced."
Susanne Mosely from Hunter Legal and Conveyancing said vendors had started to come back into the market in recent months, but believed there was still more recovery to be made.
"We had a really big September and October but November is normally much bigger than it has been this year," Ms Mosely said.
"Agents are looking for properties to sell, but sellers are still reserved and a lot are now waiting until the new year."
The licensed conveyancer said vendors were discounting homes for more than they were a year or more ago, but said the market was slowly becoming more stable.
"I do think it will continue to increase," she said.
Mr Rodrick predicted that interest rates could drop to zero next year, but isn't anticipating huge price rises in 2020. "I don't think we'll see a huge amount of growth in the next 12 months," he said.
He said Rutherford and Aberglasslyn were performing well and believed there was great potential in Central Maitland for more residential development.