Isle home sales
flat; condos up

The latest Honolulu Board
of Realtors report also shows
home prices rising as
condo prices fall

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Previously-owned condominium units sold briskly on Oahu last month, helped by lower prices, while single-family home sales leveled off, according to the latest report from the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

Sales of single-family homes totaled 217 last month, down 0.5 percent from 218 sales in August 1997. But home prices were up, the 4,000-member trade association said today in its monthly report.

The median price of single-family homes sold in August was $330,000, up 3.1 percent from $320,000 a year earlier.

Meanwhile, a total of 232 condominium units changed hands last month, a 61.1 percent increase from 144 condo resales in August 1997.

The median price among the condominiums sold, was $135,000 last month, down 8.2 percent from the August 1997 median of $146,500. The median price is the point at which half the units sold for more and half sold for less.

"The residential resales market continued its expansionary phase into a 14th consecutive month," said Linda M. Marn, president of the association. "While the single-family home resales fell one house short of last August, the much higher number of condominium resales more than made up for the deficit," she said.

Adding condominiums and houses together, there were 449 resales last month, an increase of 24 percent from 362 total units in August 1997, Marn said.

For the first eight months of 1998, sales of single-family homes were up 25.5 percent and condominium sales were up 27.4 percent.

"The dollar volume of resales in 1998 is more than $160 million ahead of the same time last year," Marn said. She said sales of single-family homes were strongest in the city area of Honolulu.

The Board of Realtors prepares its monthly report by monitoring transactions through its computerized Multiple Listing Service. It reports only on existing previously owned homes and does not gather statistics on first-time sales of new houses or apartments.