Condo market bustling

Advertiser Staff

Condominium sales on O'ahu are gaining speed, and prices have risen to levels not seen since 1998.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors said 410 existing condominiums were sold in July, at a median price of $140,000.

That's a 26 percent increase over the number sold in July 2000, and the highest median price since $145,000 in the first quarter of 1998.

Median price means half the prices were above and half below the given number.

"Sales for the month of July were fantastic," Peter Freeman, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said in a statement. "We are seeing the condominium market perform exceptionally well."

Sales of existing single-family homes also were up in July, rising 20 percent from a year earlier, at 325 houses, while the median price fell 3.5 percent, to $304,000.

By comparison, 338 homes sold in June, at a median price of $305,000.

Freeman said Windward O'ahu recorded the strongest gain in condominium sales, with a 16.7 percent year-to-date increase in units sold and a median price of $175,000, up from $135,000 a year ago.

In June, 343 condominium units sold on O'ahu, at a median price of $139,000.

Dollar sales volume for condominiums and houses in the first seven months of the year stood at $1.14 billion, or 6.8 percent higher than the $1.07 billion recorded at this point last year.

Freeman said the median asking prices in July for homes, $365,000, and condominiums, $164,000, were the highest since 1997.