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With most people now back at work and the kids back at school, passage of time away from the election and pre-Xmas hassles will likely start encouraging more people to give thought to buying or selling a house. But can we see evidence yet that a new wave of buyers is coming through?

If all the latest headlines are to be believed, we're in for a big comeback in house prices over the next 12 months or so. But when it comes to the question of "to buy or not to buy?", Squirrel guest blogger Rodney Dickens reckons the numbers don't quite stack up in favour of a house price surge just yet.

With good job security and sizeable deposits, first home buyers have jumped boots and all into the housing market since early this year. But with extra buyers set to appear in the near future, is time working against first home buyers?

With National back in government, we can anticipate the return of interest expense deductibility and no-fault tenancy terminations. But will this also bring a surge of property investors with them, and if so, what will this mean for first home buyers?

If you've been working hard to get to that 20% house deposit, you'll want to make sure your savings are working as hard as possible, to get you into your first home even faster.

Lenders will usually require you to front up with a deposit of 20% of the purchase price for an existing property – 10% if it’s a new build – before they’ll consider giving you a mortgage on it. If you’ve been saving hard only to have your deposit goal feel like it’s getting further out of reach – or you just don’t want to have to wait years and years (and years) to get into your first home – there are options out there.

Investors largely remain concerned about interest rate levels and access to bank finance. So when will they return to the housing market, and what will be the catalyst?

Do we have any evidence in hand of the impact on the residential real estate market yet of the recent round of fixed mortgage rate increases undertaken by banks? Yes, we do.

We can unequivocally say that house prices are going down, but the pace of decline in house prices is slowing. When will house prices bottom out?

In this case study, we sat down with Auckland first home buyer, Charlie, to chat about her (and partner Kyle's) journey to home ownership with us.

While there may be a shift underway in the minds of first home buyers, will the turning of the cycle be as swift going back as it was going back down?

This month's housing market update brings reassurance for those feeling panicked about where interest rates could end up, and highlights opportunity for prospective home buyers.