Neighbor island sales and prices down in 2006

While Oahu saw sales slow and prices rise slightly in 2006, both sales and prices were down on the neighbor islands last year. The Star-Bulletin has the breakdown:

Sales remained fairly steady for homes on Kauai in December: Half sold for more than $592,500, and half for less, as the median price dropped 2 percent. In December 2005, the median price of a Kauai home was $605,000.

At the market's height of summer 2005, Blachowiak recalls the median sales price on Kauai reached close to $700,000.

The Big Island is seeing the same housing trend:

On the Big Island, the median home price dropped 18 percent to $353,500 from December 2005. Despite the drop in prices, the number of homes sold declined by 41 to 160 in December.

Maui trended similar to Oahu, with home prices slightly up while sales slowed. The Maui News reports:

For the year just ended, the average price of a single-family house was $941,434, according to the Multiple Listing Service of the Realtors Association of Maui.

The median was $679,000, which means half sold for that amount or less.

Prices rose just 2 percent, after four years in which they rose by 23 percent to 25 percent per year.

The pace slowed a bit, but unlike sob stories from the Mainland, Maui’s real estate market continued active. The total of single-family closings was 1,088, which was down from 1,316 in 2005.

Oahu prices up, sales off for 2006

No surprises here: as we've been following all year, prices were up but sales slowed in 2006. The Advertiser reports that the number of homes sold was the fewest since 2002.

Last year, single-family homes sold for a median price of $630,000, or 7 percent more than $610,000 in 2005. The median is the point at which half the prices were higher and half lower. For condominiums, the median was $310,000, up 15 percent from $305,000 during the same comparable period.

Jim Wright of Century 21 says he "expects prices to decline around 5 percent and sales to rise by about 5 percent in 2007."