Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Oahu home prices up, sales down

The Advertiser reports that the median single-home price for Q1 was $625,000:

Single-family homes sold for a median price of $625,000 between January and March, up 18 percent from $529,100 in the same quarter a year earlier.

The 18 percent rise was down from 27 percent in the year-over-year comparison for the fourth quarter, and down from 31 percent in the third quarter, when the board began publishing quarterly sales data.

...

The volume of sales was down 3 percent for single-family homes and down 5 percent for condos during the quarter. That was a smaller decline than the fourth quarter when sales dropped 11 percent for both types of homes but about even with the decline in the third quarter.

Pacific Business News digs deeper:

A total of 943 homes were sold in the first quarter of 2006, down 33 compared to the first quarter of 2005. The median price, however, was considerably higher, at $625,000 compared to $529,100 last year.
They also provide a nice breakdown of median home and condo prices by neighborhood:

Homes:

  • Metro Oahu: $735,000
  • Diamond Head: $993,000
  • Hawaii Kai: $850,000
  • Kailua: $780,000
  • North Shore: $900,000
  • Leeward Coast: $355,000
  • Ewa Plain: $515,000
  • Pearl City: $590,000

Condominiums:

  • Metro Oahu: $300,000
  • Diamond Head: $450,000
  • Hawaii Kai: $555,000
  • Kailua: $412,000
  • North Shore: $327,000
  • Leeward Coast: $178,000
  • Ewa Plain: $309,500
  • Pearl City: $280,000
Diamond Head and North Shore are thisclose to breaking $1 million. Think it'll happen Q2? Later? Never?

Thursday, April 06, 2006

High prices, cooling market?

The Star Bulletin reports that Oahu housing prices set a new record in March:

"The median sales price for single-family homes continues to increase, establishing another record for Oahu at $650,000," said Mary K. Flood, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors. The condominium median price declined slightly this month, but it is still near the record level achieved in February of $315,000."

The median price among the Oahu houses sold in March rose 23.7 percent from the year-earlier median of $525,500."

Not everyone thinks the news is entirely rosy:

"I would really think that it was just a blip, because the trend is down and we have passed the peak of sales," said Harvey Shapiro, Honolulu Board of Realtors research economist. "A rest is clearly in order."

"Even with the higher number of residential sales in March, total sales for the first quarter showed a small decline from last year," said Shapiro. "This reduced demand, along with the renewed availability of housing, means that the market is moving forward on its path toward stabilization."
When realtors start talking about "a rest" and "stabilization" and "normalization", isn't that just code for "downturn"?