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2000 ‘very
powerful’ year
in home sales

Sales rose again in
December, with inventory
shortages in some areas

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By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Oahu home sales rose again in December, ending a strong year for both sales volume and prices, the Honolulu Board of Realtors said today.

Demand, spurred by low mortgage rates and an improved outlook in the island economy, is so high that in some areas it is getting hard to find properties, real estate agents said.

"I concentrate a lot in Hawaii Kai. There's no inventory and you can see the prices creeping up," said Jackie D'Orazio of Century 21 Real Estate Specialists on Kapiolani Boulevard.

Herb Conley, co-manager of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, said 2000 was very strong and the outlook for 2001 is as good.

"The beauty in the strength of the market is that it is over all of Oahu. That bodes well for Hawaii," Conley said.

He said last year was the third in a row where the number of home sales rose by double-digit percentages.

The increase in unit sales shows real strength in the market. "That's showing that people are confident enough to be buying as well as selling," Conley said.

"The Oahu housing market is enjoying a multiyear, double-digit expansion that has now reached 42 consecutive months," said Peter Freeman, president and chief executive of the 3,500-member Board of Realtors.

"The total dollar volume we recorded in 2000 was $1.94 billion," for resales of existing homes, an increase of more than 21 percent from $1.6 billion in 1999, Freeman said.

In December alone, 270 single-family homes on Oahu changed owners, a 1.1 percent increase from 267 in December 1999. Last month's median price among single-family homes sold was $306,500, up 9.1 percent from the $281,000 December 1999 median, the price at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.

Condominium resales last month totaled 318 units, up 9.3 percent from 291 in December 1999, and last month's condominium median price was $127,500, up 4.5 percent from $122,000 in December 1999.

"December resale figures capped off a very powerful year in the housing market," Freeman said.

Through all of 2000, a total of 3,181 single-family homes were resold, up 11.5 percent from 2,853 in 1999. Year 2000 condominium resales totaled 3,926, up 19 percent from 3,298 in 1999.

The 7,107 total of houses and condominium units sold in 2000 was a 15.5 percent increase from 6,151 in 1999. That boost came after increases of 10.3 percent in 1997, 24.3 percent in 1998, and 20 percent in 1999, Freeman said.

While the board reports only on resales of previously owned homes, builders of new homes have also reported strong island demand.

Schuler Homes Inc., which reported higher sales for the first nine months of the year, said its year-end figures are now in and the company finished 2000 with strong business.

"We've had a great month," in December, said Mary Flood, Schuler's vice president of sales and marketing.

Schuler had net sales of 96 new homes and condominium units in the last quarter of the year, up from 65 in the last three months of 1999, she said.

The company does have more homes for sale on Oahu but inventory is tightening up, she said. The company has only four single-family homes left in its Waikele developments and 50 units in each of two condominium communities there, she said.