Despite a 6.5 percent rise in home sales on Oahu in last year, the market has been dragging since 1991 and last year's sales were lower than the 1980 level, according to figures from the Honolulu Board of Realtors.
Still, sales of existing single-family homes on Oahu rose to 147 last month, up 22 percent from the 120 sales in December 1995. That led C. Scott Bradley, president of the 4,400-member real estate trade association, to conclude that the year ended on a positive note.
Prices of single-family homes held the line, for a median of $340,000 in December, compared with the $340,500 December 1995 median, the point where half the sales were for higher prices and half for less.
Only 148 condominium units were sold last month, a 20.4 percent drop from 186 in December 1995, but the condominium median price of $180,000 last month was up 2.9 percent from $175,000 a year earlier.
Bradley said the condominium median price last month was 12.5 percent higher than the November median and the fact that it was nearly 3 percent higher than it was in December 1995 was good news for the market, despite the volume decline.
However, a look back over the whole year shows an industry in the doldrums along with much of the rest of the island economy.
Last year, 1,749 existing single-family homes on Oahu were sold to new owners, up 6.5 percent from 1,642 in 1995. But 1996 was well below the 1994 level of 2,151 home sales and nowhere near the single-family record of 3,179 sales in 1987. The 1996 level was close to that of 1980 when about 1,800 homes were sold.
In the condominium market, 1,990 units changed hands on Oahu last year. That was a 12 percent drop from 2,260 in 1995, which was well below the 1994 level of 3,371.
Last year's condominium sales were not much more than one-fourth of the record 6,546 units sold in 1988.
The basic problem is still the lack of improvement in the Hawaii economy, Bradley said.
"The cost of living here is significantly higher than on the mainland and the economy has been not helping for several years now," Bradley said.
"We're encouraged by the December figures, but we'll need to see a much bigger improvement in the local economy for residential sales to improve," he said.
Meanwhile, prices through the year as a whole were down, according to the Realtors' figures.
The 1996 median price among single-family homes was $335,000, down 4 percent from the 1995 median of $349,000, said Harvey Shapiro, the association's research director.
The 1996 condominium median of $175,000 was 3.8 percent lower than 1995's $182,000.
The median prices have not been that low since 1989, when the single-family median was $270,000 and the condominium median was $135,500.
Realtors have seen a decline in the number of properties being marketed actively, Bradley said.
He said the number of condominium units listed for sale last month was down nearly 11 percent from December 1995 and listings of single family homes fell 8 percent from last summer. That may make attractively priced properties harder to find in the future, he said.
"This continues to be an opportune time for both first-time and move-up buyers in the housing market," Bradley said.
The Board of Realtors for months has cited low interest rates and attractive prices as good reasons to buy homes, but real estate industry officials say consumers are apparently reluctant to enter the housing market because of their uncertainty over the economy.
The association tracks home sales through its computerized Multiple Listing Service. It does not include sales of new houses and condominiums. However, reports from the publicly held companies that develop new subdivisions and build new homes in Hawaii show that their sales are down as well.
They have had to resort to incentives such as zero-down payments and free luxury add-ons to attract buyers.