Oahu home sales
jump 12.9%

The median prices for both
homes and condos were
down in October

Star-Bulletin staff

Oahu real estate sales continued to rise with a 12.9 percent increase in single family resales and a 23.6 percent boost in condominium resales last month compared with October 1997.

The median price for homes was $315,000, down 3.2 percent from October 1997, but up 10.1 percent from September's median, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors' latest monthly report.

For condominiums, the median price was $158,400 last month, a drop of 18.2 percent from October 1997 but an increase of 3.6 percent from September.

The median is the midpoint at which half the units sold for more and half for less.

"The number of residential resales rose for the 16th straight month, based on a year-to-year comparison," said Linda M. Marn, chairwoman of the Realtors' board.

Last month, 194 homes and 212 condominiums changed hands. The board's figures do not include sales of new homes and condos.

For the first 10 months of 1998, there have been 2,000 home resales and 2,145 condominium resales, compared with 1,656 homes and 1,791 condominiums resold in the same period in 1997.

"The total value of these (1998) resales is just under $1.1 billion, a 15.6 percent increase in dollar volume from the same time last year," Marn said.

Relatively stable prices and low mortgage interest rates continue to be major factors in buyers' decisions.

"The single-family home median sales price has been around $300,000 for the past six months and appears to be stabilizing," Marn said. "Condominium pricing is also demonstrating the same trends."

Realtors like to follow prices as they occur in economic cycles. "Prices remain substantially higher than at the start of the current market cycle that began in early 1987," Marn said. "Even with recent declines from 1990 peaks, at approximately double their 1987 values, today's median sales price for a single family dwelling is still 72.4 percent ahead of the beginning of the cycle.

"Condominiums have given up more of their value gains but are still 30.3 percent higher."