Median price for home
on Maui tops $780,000

The median sale price of single-family homes on Maui topped more than $780,000 in May, the highest ever on the Valley Isle, but that has not stopped buyers.

It is not even slowing them down.

"Everyone wants a piece of Hawaii, even at those prices. Go figure," said Keone Ball, vice president and broker-in-charge at Carol Ball and Associates in Kahului.

Half of Maui's single-family home buyers spent more than $780,000 to buy a house last month -- a 21.9 percent increase over the median of $640,000 a year ago, according to statistics released yesterday by the Realtors Association of Maui.

Despite the record median price, buyer enthusiasm remained strong. There were 110 single-family home sales during the month, an increase of 31 percent over the previous May's 84 sales.

"One economist said we'd see median prices hit a million during the next cycle, but at this rate we could reach that by the end of the year," Ball said, adding that he expects the current cycle to continue upward.

While Maui condominium prices did not set a record in May, the $365,000 median price was 32 percent higher than the $276,500 paid by buyers the year before. The number of condominiums sold, at 155, dropped 9.9 percent from the previous May's 172 sales.

The rise in single-family home prices has led more buyers to begin considering condos, Ball said.

"People are paying more than $300,000 for condos that couldn't be given away before," he said.

While it is hard for first-time home buyers or those searching for affordable homes to buy on Maui, there is no shortage of wealthy mainland buyers or homeowners looking to trade up, Ball said.

"There are a lot of exchanges going on," he said. "People are also cashing in on their equity to trade up instead of using it to remodel existing properties."

Tracy Stice, a broker with Century 21 All Islands, said most of the money is coming from the mainland. "The people I see coming in are between 40 and 60 years old with lots of money," he said.

Since there does not seem to be any end to the number of wealthy buyers who are eying Maui's residential market, prices are not likely to drop soon unless more homes come on the market, Stice said.

"It's simple economics. They aren't creating houses quick enough to fill the demand, so prices keep rising," Stice said. "It's getting next to impossible for the average person to buy something."