Maui homes sales decline
While the number of single-family home and condominium sales dropped on Maui in October, the market still bore healthy price increases, pushing the year-to-date sales volume and prices significantly higher than the same period in 2004.
Maui real estate sales showed few signs of cooling down during the first 10 months of the year, according to figures from the Realtors Association of Maui. The price and volume of single-family homes and condominiums also kept pace for the month of October.
"We did very well volume-wise even though sales were not as brisk, because we had higher prices per transaction," said Carol Ball, principal broker and owner of Kahului-based Carol Ball & Associates.
Buyers have become savvy as Maui's hot real-estate cycle has continued, but price increases still are being absorbed by the market, Ball said.
"People are used to paying higher prices for modest properties," she said.
More than half of the single-family homes sold in October went for more than $695,000, a 19.8 percent gain from the year-earlier $580,000. The median price paid for a condominium also shot up to $445,000, a 21.1 percent jump from 2004's $367,500.
Despite the price increases, the number of days that single-family homes and condominiums spent on the market dropped 22 percent and 9 percent respectively from the year earlier.
Last month, 83 single-family homes changed hands, a 33.6 percent drop from the year-earlier 125. Likewise, condominium sales fell 5.7 percent to 117 from 124 sales.
