www.interest.co.nz A slight blip up in the median house price in March and the relentless rise in interest rates have combined to shunt New Zealand housing affordability to a record low.The Fairfax Media Home Loan affordability report shows the mean 2 year fixed mortgage rate rose nearly 10 basis points to 9.64% in March, which compounded the hurt done by a slight rise in the median house price to take the inhabitant affordability level to its worst ever. The full inhabitant and regional home loan affordability reports are available here for regular home buyers and here for first home buyers. The proportion of median take home pay required to service the mortgage on a median house rose to 83.1% in March from 80.2% in February and surpassed the record 83.0% seen in November last year when house prices hit their peak. This is also worse than the 77.8% seen in March last year and nearly double the 44.2% seen in March 2003 when housing was seen as only just affordable. Most bankers believe anything more than 40% of after tax pay is unaffordable. Affordability worsened sharply in Northland and Wellington because of a bounce back in house prices. Wellington’s map of 90.7% of take home pay to service the median mortgage rose from 82.9% in February and was up from 46.3% in March 2003. Home loan affordability improved slightly in Waikato of Plenty, where the part of take home pay needed to service the mortgage fell to 80.7% in March from 83.9% in February because house …