Big Island home sales fall while prices rise
While the pace of residential real estate sales went down in some markets on the Big Island and Kauai in October, prices continued rising.
On the Big Island, the number of single-family home and condominium sales dropped last month. Single-family home sales fell 2.4 percent to 204 in October, while condominium sales fell 10.2 percent to 79, according to Hawaii Information Service data released yesterday.
However, median sales prices on the Big Island showed strong overall increases last month. The median price for a single-family home was $363,333, an increase of 8.8 percent from the year-earlier $334,000.
"This is the time of year that tends to be the slowest, but the market is still good here. We have buyers and it's moving," said Carrie Nicholson, a real estate agent with Clark Realty Corp. in Kona.
When the Canadian snow birds and the North American tourist market come back to the islands in December, Nicholson said the Big Island's real estate market will start jumping again. Second-home buyers continue to flood the market, contributing to strong price increases, she said.
Skyrocketing single-family home prices and demand for second homes on the Big Island contributed to a market shift. In October, the median price paid for a condominium passed the single-family home benchmark. More than half of Big Island condominium buyers paid $474,500 for their purchase -- a 47.3 percent jump from year-ago median.
Despite monthly fluctuations, the pace, price and volume of the Big Island's market is up for the year. In the first 10 months of the year, single-family home sales grew about 3 percent and condominium sales rose by nearly 10 percent.
The start of the school year, as well as slowdowns in the West Coast real estate market, have contributed to a slight lag in Kauai's residential market, said Dennis Toth, a real estate agent with the Princeville branch of Regency Pacific Realty LLC.
However, the market will heat up again come December through April when the Garden Isle's independent visitor market returns, Toth said.
"I'm not worried about a slowdown," Toth said. "The baby boomers and their disposable income will keep this market hot for quite some time."
Though some mainland real estate markets have turned, lessening the available equity that boomers have to make second home purchases, Toth said there will always be enough buyers with money to sustain Kauai's supply and demand equation.
"We are such a tiny market," he said.
While condominium sales on the Garden Isle increased 39.4 percent to 46 units last month from a year earlier, the number of single-family home sales declined by 12.9 percent to 54, according to the Hawaii Information Service.
For the first 10 months of the year, single-family home sales declined 1 percent to 582 from the year-earlier 589, while condominium sales rose 22 percent to 555 from 454.
During the month, the median price for a single-family home rose 15 percent to $652,500 from a year earlier, while the median price for a condominium continued to gain ground, growing another 9 percent to $455,000. During the first 10 months of the year, the median price paid for a single-family hone on Kauai rose to $639,500, a 32 percent gain from the same period last year. The year-to-date median price paid for a Garden Isle condominium grew by 16 percent to $435,000.
