Oahu home prices dip
Sales rose from a year ago
but the $392,500 median in
November fell from the
previous month's record
Median home prices on Oahu showed signs of stabilizing last month after hitting new records from August through October.
But the market was far from calm.
Sales continued their brisk pace through November with prices and sales volume both up substantially from a year ago. Prices dipped slightly from the month before.
There were 365 single-family homes that changed hands last month on Oahu, up 18.9 percent from 307 in November 2002, the Honolulu Board of Realtors said yesterday. The median price among single-family homes was $392,500, up 13.1 percent from $347,000 in the previous November, but down 1.7 percent from the all-time high of $399,300 recorded in October of this year.
Condominium resales totaled 555 units, a 17.6 percent jump from a year-earlier 472. The condominium median price of $180,000 was up 12.5 percent from $160,000 in November of last year, but down 2.7 percent from a record $185,000 in October.
The median is the price at which half the homes sold for more and half for less.
Leeward area Realtor John Riggins of John Riggins Realty said the month-to-month slip in prices is explained by a lack of higher-priced homes available for sale.
"That will fluctuate," Riggins said. He had not seen the latest report, but he said the availability of homes in the $300,000 to $500,000 price range is extremely tight.
Year-to-date sales have totaled $3.31 billion, up 35.4 percent from $2.37 billion in sales written in the first 11 months of last year, said Mary Begier, president of the 4,000-member Oahu real estate trade association.
"The positive economic conditions currently in place, including job growth, increasing incomes and the most affordable financing in years, should push the real estate market to new heights in the coming months," said Harvey Shapiro, Board of Realtors research economist.
The organization reports sales of previously owned homes only, gathering the information from its computerized Multiple Listing Service. The figures are for sales contracts, and the actual closing of the deals happens several months later after escrow closes.
