Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Isle home sales
steadily picking up

Median prices soared in
April and one Realtor expects
the recovery to continue

By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

Home and condo prices on Oahu both jumped more than 10 percent last month from April 1999, marking what one Realtor calls a steady recovery in the market.

Median prices for single-family homes rose 11.9 percent to $319,000 from $285,000 in April 1999, while condo prices jumped 13.2 percent to $134,000 from $118,400, according to a report released today by the Honolulu Board of Realtors. The median is the point at which half the prices were more and half were less.

A total of 260 single-family homes were sold last month, up 13 percent from 238 in April 1999, while 322 condos changed hands, up 17.1 percent from 275 a year ago, according to the board which tracks sales of previously owned residences but not newly built homes and condos.

"April sales figures for the Oahu housing market showed that expansion continued for the 34th consecutive month," board President Peter Freeman said.

In contrast to total sales, prices had remained flat in the past year.

But April's price increase should become a trend in the following months, said Realtor Cedric Choi, managing director for Patricia Choi Realty Inc, which deals in the luxury market.

He said the market as a whole usually follows the luxury segment, and luxury prices have steadily increased 25 percent during the past six months.

Choi noted that April's price increase of 10 percent is not astronomical, which means it's more likely to continue.

The increase derives from rising investment from the West Coast, where the tech sector and stock market exploded in the past year, he said.

A recent survey found Honolulu's luxury prices had fallen to nearly half of the values in Silicon Valley, wetting buyers' appetites, he said. "Prices here are cheap in comparison to California."

For the year through April, 976 homes were resold in Honolulu, up 30 percent from 747 in the first four months of 1999; 1,142 condos changed hands so far this year up 25 percent from 915 a year earlier, according to board figures.