Oahu home sales
jump, prices slide

August single-family home sales
approached a seven-year high

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Sales of existing single-family homes on Oahu jumped 26 percent last month, compared with August 1996, due partly to lower prices.

Aside from a brief surge in early 1994, single-family home resales are running higher than at any time since mid-1990, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors, which released its monthly home and condominium sales survey today.

Attractive prices for single-family homes have cut into condo sales, as people who previously may have only qualified for apartment financing found they could afford houses, said C. Scott Bradley, president of the 4,100-member trade association.

But condo sales were up anyway last month, rising 2.1 percent from August 1996, he said.

A total of 218 single-family homes changed owners in August, compared with 173 in August 1996.

Condominium resales totaled 144 last month, up from 141 in the year-earlier month.

Bradley said prices, which were down in both markets last month, "seem to be stabilizing."

The median price among single-family homes last month was $320,000, a dip of 3 percent from $330,000 a year earlier but higher than at any time since February.

The condominium median was $146,500, down 11.2 percent from the $165,000 August 1996 median, the price at which half the units sold for more and half for less.

"So far this year, condominium resales have accounted for only half of the residential property resale market, compared to two-thirds of the market just a few years ago. Higher insurance and reserve requirement costs have further weakened this market," Bradley said.

Through August, year-to-date sales of single-family homes were up 8.6 percent at 1,259, from 1,159 in the first eight months of 1996. Condominium sales for the eight months of 1997 total 1,277, down 3.6 percent from 1,325 in the equivalent period last year.

The board tracks home sales through its computerized Multiple Listing Service, which records sales of previously owned houses and apartments. It does not track sales of newly built units.

The association said it now has details of thousands of for-sale homes on its Internet home page at http://www.hbr.com.

The listings can be sorted by geographic location, price range or both.