Maui house prices stay near $700K
The median price of a single-family home on Maui slipped somewhat in January compared to the previous two months, but continued hovering near the $700,000 mark.
Half the homes sold last month on Maui went for more than $698,750, according to figures released yesterday by the Realtors Association of Maui. January's median price was off 3.3 percent from the previous month's $722,500, but 10.5 percent higher than the January 2005 median of $632,500.
Home sales in higher-priced areas such as Wailea/Makena Haiku, Kaanapali, Napili/Kahana/Honokowai -- where the median exceeded $1 million -- drove up Maui's islandwide median sales price, the point at which half the sales were higher and half were lower.
The median price for a condominium came in at $440,000, a 10 percent gain from December 2005, but only slightly higher than January 2005's $430,000 median price.
The number of sales in January were down because most of the transactions recorded that month had gone into escrow during the slower holiday season, said Terry Tolman, a spokesman for the Realtors Association of Maui.
"As always, I will remind everyone that Maui's marketplace is much smaller than Oahu's, and that a few high or low sales have a greater effect on the statistical numbers without necessarily indicating a big market swing one way or another," Tolman said.
The pace of single-family home sales dropped off, according to the association's statistics, with 76 homes changing hands in January 2006 compared to 98 in January 2005, a decline of 22.4 percent.
However, as buyers continued to be priced out of the single-family home market, the pace of condominium transactions picked up by 18.2 percent, rising to 117 sales.