Mr Wheeler's comments are expected to come in the latest financial stability report. The reports are released twice a year.
Harbour Asset Management director Christian Hawkesby said, in the short term, mortgage approvals and housing sales should provide the best leading indicator of the impact of the LVR restrictions imposed by the Reserve Bank.
In the long term, affordability would be a key factor restraining New Zealand house price inflation.
''The New Zealand housing market has come back to life in 2013 and is an important ingredient in the economic outlook for 2014.''
Household credit growth had increased to about 5% a year but was still relatively modest compared with the mid-2000s when annual credit growth exceeded 15%, he said.
It was hard to argue 2013 had seen a ''credit-fuelled'' house price boom.
However, the percentage of riskier high LVR mortgages - lending more than 80% of the mortgage - had increased to about 30% of new lending, suggesting a growing exposure of some banks and mortgage borrowers to a housing market downturn.
The increase in high LVR lending prompted the Reserve Bank's new speed limit of no more than 10% of new mortgage lending having an LVR above 80%.
The Reserve Bank also signalled in the September monetary policy statement its willingness to increase official interest rates, helping push up longer-term fixed rates, Mr Hawkesby said.
''Introducing LVR restrictions is uncharted territory for New Zealand and overseas evidence of the effectiveness of macroprudential tools is mixed. The Reserve Bank estimates LVR restrictions are likely to lower annual household credit growth by 1% to 3%.''
New rules could introduce some unusual dynamics, he said. Aspiring high LVR borrowers with an existing pre-approval could rush to take out a mortgage before the pre-approval expired.
Equally, banks could attempt to increase the growth of their low LVR lending with increased total lending creating more room for high LVR lending within the 10% speed limit.
''Our intelligence suggests the initial response of banks has been to pull back significantly from high LVR lending.
"Part of this caution relates to banks needing more time to come to grips with implementing and monitoring compliance with the new rules. Until then, they have a strong aversion to being anywhere near their 10% limit.''
Although data on new mortgage approvals was volatile on a weekly basis, approvals had trended down since the Reserve Bank announced its LVR restrictions, Mr Hawkesby said.
Surveys of housing confidence also suggested sentiment in the housing market was becoming more cautious, especially in Auckland where a net 20% of respondents believed it was not a good time to buy.
The total value of home loans approved dropped below $1 billion in the last week of October - the first time since July, Reserve Bank figures showed this week.
The data showed $932 million worth of loans were approved in the week ending November 1, down $129 million on the previous week.
The data also indicated lending might be slowing in the wake of the LVR restrictions coming into effect. The number of loans approved fell 4.1% in the 13 weeks to November 1 compared with the previous corresponding period.
Year-on-year the number of loans were up 4% but the growth rate has been trending down all year.
In the week before the new lending rules were introduced, the number of loans approved were up 7.8%.
The data suggested the value of home lending growth might also be trending down. In the 13 weeks to November 1, the value was up just 2.1% compared with corresponding period last year.
Year-on-year the value was up 10%. In November last year, the value increase reached a peak of 40%.
