Isle home sales
climb for 28th
straight month
Condo purchases jump 24%
By Ed Lynch
amid an overall trend of
falling median prices
Star-Bulletin
Buoyed by the best condominium sales volume since June 1994, Oahu's real estate market in October recorded its 28th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains.
The Honolulu Board of Realtors yesterday reported 325 condominium resales last month, up 24 percent from 262 resales in October 1998. Single-family home resales reached 246 last month, up 12.3 percent from 219 a year earlier.
"Condominium sales accounted for 56.9 percent of overall housing sales in October, a larger proportion of the market than we've seen in recent months," said Harvey Shapiro, the board's research director.
Prices headed in the opposite direction with the median condo price last month at $122,000, down 5.8 percent from $129,500 a year earlier, and the median home price at $286,500, 6.1 percent lower than $305,000 in October 1998. The median marks the point at which half the properties sold for more and half sold for less.
In its previous monthly report, the board saw a rise in September's median prices as a sign that the deflationary trend for Oahu housing prices in the 1990s was coming to an end. But October's median prices for condos and single-family homes were among the lowest for any month in 1999.
Still, the board took heart in the quicker rate at which homes and condos were selling last month. "The median time on market to sell both single-family homes and condominiums was the shortest time for any October since 1993," Shapiro said.
On average, single-family homes that sold last month were on the market for 49 days before selling, more than a week faster than a year ago, he said. And condos were on the market for 58 days before selling, more than three weeks faster than October 1998.
For the first 10 months of 1999, 2,346 single-family homes have been resold vs. 2,000 a year earlier, a 17.3 percent increase; condo resales equaled 2,755 compared with 2,145 a year earlier, a 28.4 percent rise. The board said the dollar value of total resales so far in 1999 is $1.3 billion, a 19.7 percent increase from a year ago.
The 3,500-member board reports on sales of existing properties on Oahu. Its figures do not include new home sales.
