Maui home, condo sales lower than year ago

However, condo prices are higher than April '07

Year-on-year sales volume and pricing continued to trail year-ago levels in Maui's single-family home residential real estate market in April and condominium sales followed suit. However, condominium prices rose from the same period last year.

In April, there were 24 percent fewer single-family home transactions than the same month in 2007 and the median price declined by 15.6 percent to $566,000, according to data released yesterday by the Realtors Association of Maui.

The number of condominium units sold in April were down 20.7 percent from year-ago levels, but prices rose 23.1 percent to $600,000.

"Since the market peaked in summer '05, the monthly numbers have bounced up, down and sideways with a general cooling trend," said Terry Tolman, chief staff executive for the Realtors Association of Maui. "Some mainland markets have suffered, and that filters down to the Maui market."

More "short sales," which mark a downward-trending market, appeared in Maui last month, Tolman said. In a short sale, the lender agrees to accept an offer that is less than the seller owes on the property. While not desirable, some lenders will accept them rather than risk a foreclosure proceeding.

However single-family and condo inventory shrank somewhat, Tolman said.