Queenstown Lakes was 4.3% down on a year ago, Taieri 3.8% down and Dunedin 3.3% down.
The top average property sale prices for last month were $536,087 for Queenstown Lakes, $278,934 for Central Otago and $268,968 for Dunedin.
Only Coastal Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula bucked the downward trend, improving by 2% on last December, with an average price of $230,086.
Quotable Value (QV) reported late this week the average national residential property price was now 5.8% below the market peak of 2007.
"The number of sales in October 2010 dropped to the lowest level for that month since 1985 and, while there was a very mild recovery in November, it was still well below average," QV research director Jonno Ingerson said.
"Early indications are that the number of sales will also be low in December. If that is the case then the total number of sales for the year will be about the same as 2008 and the lowest since 1991," Mr Ingerson said.
"Without significant changes in the wider economy, indications at this stage are that there are unlikely to be any dramatic changes in the property market during 2011. Consumer confidence is a key driver of the property market, and that will need to improve before the market returns to some form of normality.
"There are signs that the oversupply of property for sale may continue for the first half of this year as there are more people intending to sell in the next six months than there are intending to buy."
A number of factors had contributed to low sales volumes in 2010.
"There was a general lack of consumer confidence and many would-be buyers and sellers were under financial pressure and were choosing to reduce debt rather than buy or sell property," Mr Ingerson said.
"Securing finance was also an issue for many as the banks tightened their lending criteria. These criteria relaxed a little late in the year, which probably contributed to the increase of sales in November."
However, he believed consumer confidence could be returning.
"There are now more people who think that house prices will rise in 2011 than those who believe they will fall," Mr Ingerson said.
"At some stage in 2012, or so, the lack of building activity over the last couple of years and a steadily increasing population is likely to increase demand for housing."
QV's residential price index uses data from the three months leading up to the month being reported, and is not the same as the average sales price.
