Oahu home sales
up, prices fall

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Home resales on Oahu jumped in January, continuing an upward trend that has run for seven months, but prices were lower.

Sales of existing single-family homes were up a whopping 69.7 percent, a total of 185 units last month compared with 109 in January 1997, according to the monthly report from the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

However, the median price among the single-family homes changing hands was down 11.1 percent at $280,000, compared with the January 1997 $315,000 median, the price at which half the sales were higher and half lower.

Condominium resales rose too, the 4,000-member trade group said. A total of 177 units changed hands last month, up 9.3 percent from 162 in the year-earlier month. The condominium median price was $138,000 last month, down 5.3 percent from $145,700.

Realtor Linda M. Marn, the board's chairwoman, said January showed a continuation of the healthier housing market that started last summer.

The total residential sales count, combining the numbers of single-family homes and condominium units changing hands, was up 33.6 percent from January 1997, she said.

"The vast improvement in the single-family home market was impressive," Marn said. Six of the 17 neighborhoods that make up Oahu's research pattern showed sales increases of 150 percent or more, she said.

"The two biggest sales increases were in the single-family neighborhoods of Waipahu and Mililani, up 183 percent and 175 percent respectively," Marn said.

The overall increase in condominium sales included a 44.8 percent gain in volume of resales in Waikiki, the biggest condominium neighborhood on Oahu, she said. Waikiki condominiums also showed a 4.1 percent increase in median price.

The Board of Realtors gathers its statistical information from transactions recorded through its computerized Multiple Listing Service. That system handles existing homes only and does not track sales of new homes.

Many listings of homes for sale can be seen on the Board's Web site at http://www.hbr.com with searches by location and/or price.