Oahu home prices
now No. 2

From staff and wire reports

Oahu home prices had the biggest decline in the nation during the fourth quarter but still were high enough to be the second most expensive market in the nation, according to a report released today.

The National Association of Realtors said that Oahu's median single-family home price for 1997's fourth quarter was $300,000, down 10 percent from the same period of 1996. The drop meant San Francisco, with a median of $304,000, surpassed Honolulu as the priciest market in the nation.

The Oahu median, the price at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, was 2.4 times the national median of $124,800.

But Harvey Shapiro, research director of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said recent declines in local prices have lowered the gap.

Like home prices in many cities, top-placed San Francisco's were up, for a 14.1 percent rise in the median compared with the figure for the fourth quarter of 1996.

The National Association of Realtors surveyed 134 metropolitan U.S. home markets.

Oahu was one of only 10 markets that saw a price decline in the fourth quarter.

Nationally, the median price rose 6.2 percent to $124,800. That was nearly double the 3.3 percent rise a year earlier and the biggest fourth quarter-to-fourth quarter gain in six years. The gain clearly beat overall inflation, just 1.7 percent in 1997.

Pricey places The top ten most expensive home markets, based on median single-family home resale prices from October through December, followed by the percentage change from the same period in 1996: San Francisco $304,600 14.1% Honolulu $300,000 -10.0% Orange Cty, Calif. $237,400 10.7% Bergen Cty, N.J. $202,100 0.9% Boston $195,900 10.6% Newark, N.J. $192,300 2.9% San Diego $189,000 8.4% Los Angeles $177,800 6.4% New York $177,700 2.5% Middlesex, N.J. $177,400 3.7% United States $124,800 6.25% Source: National Association of Realtors