(Adds context, quote from REINZ chief executive and detail on price drop in Auckland)
WELLINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - New Zealand's house prices edged higher nationwide in February, though the red-hot market in Auckland dipped, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) said on Monday.
Runaway house prices in the country's largest city have been of particular concern to the central bank, which is worried moderating prices are only a temporary result of increased macroprudential restrictions.
Median prices in Auckland have gained 11 percent for the year to February, a factor seen as a top risk to New Zealand's financial stability by both the central bank and economists at the International Monetary Fund.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) last year tightened loan-to-value (LVR) lending rules and has been lobbying the government for months for permission to set debt-to-income (DTI) limits, to further combat "excessive" house price growth.
"We hear anecdotally that LVRs are having an effect and banks are reducing lending, becoming more selective about who they lend to, what properties they will lend on and the terms," REINZ Chief Executive Bindi Norwell said in a statement.
The institute said that prices rose 0.3 percent, compared with a month ago, to be 14.1 percent higher than they were in February last year.
Excluding Auckland, national median prices rose only 7.2 percent. Prices in Auckland market cooled 1.7 percent since January, a dip that also turned up in Quotable Value data published earlier this month.
