The mythical unicorn is a creature of elf-enchanted forests. It's also the term used in the credit scoring industry for a person with an unfeasibly high credit score. This week saw the launch of Creditsimple.co.nz which provides free instant access to your credit score, which places you on a scale of 0-1000.

The heat map shows where Auckland first-home buyers have been investing most over the last two years. The popularity of Ponsonby/Grey Lynn, Epsom, Remuera and Ellerslie showed the suburban dream wasn't for everyone, Myvalocity spokeswman Charlene White said.

Wellington's soaring property market, which saw house prices rise by $7000 in a single month, is being described as crazier than the 2007 boom. While the record-high prices and unprecedented low housing stock can be read as good new for sellers, those wanting to climb aboard the property train are getting left further back in the dust.

The number of new houses up for sale in Auckland has fallen by a "significant" amount as high prices and low stock fuel a seller's market. Auckland's housing stock for May fell 9.2 per cent compared to the same time last year, data from Realestate.co.nz showed. Property commentator Olly Newland said it was a significant number for Auckland because of how tight the market already was."Anything that goes up for sale today in Auckland, even leaky places, it's a guaranteed sale," he said.

The NZX 50 closed down 0.5 per cent on Tuesday.

As a property investor you've probably heard of LVR. LVR is an acronym that stands for Loan to Value Ratio and is the proportion of money you borrow compared to the value of the property. It is expressed as a percentage. LVR is used by lenders to help assess the risk factor of borrowers before deciding whether to approve a loan. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about LVR.

If this was 1966, Auckland couple Tom Gray and Nicola Reid would most likely be married and live in their own home. It would have cost them about three or four times Tom's annual income, Nicola would have had her first child, and according to the fertility rate of the time, they'd go on to have about three kids. The 26-year-old would almost certainly be a stay-at-home mum — at least while the children were young, and the couple's mortgage would be paid off well before Tom's retirement.

Auckland's average house price has officially cracked the $1 million mark, with politicians demanding a government response to the "scandalous" milestone. However, Prime Minister John Key says the unwelcome figure is simply the sign of a market moving up and down - although he has conceded it would be fine if prices "eased back a wee bit".

In a further effort to slow the mad housing market, the Reserve Bank is going to put limits on how much investors can borrow and has also re-tightened limits on how much banks can lend to people with house deposits under 20 per cent.

Sky-rocketing Auckland house prices are showing signs of slowing down and any talk about hitting a $1 million average is "over inflating" where prices are heading. Barfoot & Thompson figures show the average sale price reached $906,560 in August, up 4.5 per cent compared to July. However, this was an increase of only 2.6 per cent on the average price over the previous three months.