Home prices differ on Kauai, Big Isle
The median price of a home on Kauai fell significantly, by 26.4 percent in May to $570,000, according to the latest data by Hawaii Information Service.
That's a big drop from the median price the previous year, when it was at $775,000. Real estate agents sold 39 existing homes, the same number sold in May of last year.
Debra Blachowiak, principal broker of
Sleeping Giant Sotheby's on Kauai, said she wasn't surprised.
"I think it's been going down for over a year and last month reflected on it," she said. "There's so much inventory coming on, affecting the general trend."
She pointed out that given the small market on Kauai, one sale can skew the numbers. Blachowiak expects the downward trend to continue.
"It's drifting down, not crashing," she said.
Median home prices on the Big Island, on the other hand, went up slightly, by just 1 percent, to $439,500 in May compared to $435,000 the same month last year.
A total of 150 existing homes changed hands on the Big Island in May, 17 lower than the same month last year.
Condominium sales dropped significantly on Kauai to 25 in May, compared to 80 last year. It may have been due to a dramatically higher median price of $700,000 in May, compared to $355,000 in May of last year.
On the Big Island, condo sales also dropped to 54 in May, at a median price of $396,950, compared to 71 in May of last year, at a median price of $525,000.