The long-term records of sunspot area available separately for Northern and Southern Hemispheres have been investigated by means of cross-recurrence technique. Phase component of the north-south asymmetry was extracted. This measure demonstrates long-period systematic variations with the sign change of hemispheric leading in 1920s and 1960s. Moreover phase north-south asynchrony anticorrelates with the so called “magnetic equator”, which was defined as difference of the mean sunspot latitudes between two hemispheres. Relationships of the phase north-south asynchrony, magnetic equator and butterfly diagrams are presented and discussed.