Homes and condos
going faster on Oahu

Condo sales were the highest
since 1990; single-family
resales also rose last month

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Home resales on Oahu were up solidly in April, with more condominiums changing hands than at any time since the summer of 1990.

Resales of single-family homes also held up strongly, while not breaking long-term records.

Prices rose as well, in what real estate dealers say is an ongoing improvement of the market.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors said 325 single-family homes changed hands last month, an 8.7 percent increase from 299 resales in April 2001. While that number is strong, it was equaled or passed in June, July and August of last year, according to figures from the board.

But the condominium number was a standout, with 466 units changing owners last month, a 29.1 percent increase from 361 in April 2001. In August 1990, at the end of the Japanese investment "bubble," 524 Oahu condo units changed hands, but the number dropped to 466 in September 1990, and by December of that year, the condo resales had dwindled to 257.

Peter Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the 3,500-member real estate trade association, called the April figures "phenomenal." He said prices for single-family homes rose, resulting in a median price of $317,000 last month, up 9.3 percent from a median of $290,000 in April 2001. The condominium median resale price last month was $145,000, up 7.4 percent from the $135,000 April 2001 median, the price where half the units sold for more and half for less.

"This is the highest price paid for a condominium since early 1998," Freeman said. "The positive market factors in real estate continue to be favorable pricing, low interest rates, investment potential and consumer confidence in an improving economy."

A big question in the real estate community has to do with how long the boom can continue.

After some five years of strong sales, the inventory of homes is diminishing, and basic laws of economics say that should drive prices even higher, but Freeman said there is no evidence of that happening.

"One of the reasons, I think, is that sellers realize that home affordability is a factor in buyers being able to qualify" for financing, he said. "Sellers like to find a serious buyer and move the property."

Freeman said total sales of all types of previously owned homes and condominiums added up to $685 million through the first four months of this year, up 13.4 percent from the total during the equivalent period of last year, $604 million.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reports monthly on statistics gleaned from its computerized Multiple Listing Service. The reports cover only existing homes, and the board does not have figures in new houses or apartments being sold for the first time.