O'ahu housing sales mixed in May

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

O'ahu home resales and prices were down last month, but condominiums performed well, and the island's real estate resale market through May 2001 was better than the first five months of last year.

Four hundred condominiums and 272 single-family homes were resold in May, according to data released yesterday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

That's down from 417 condominiums and 304 single-family homes resold in May 2000.

A median condominium sales price of $134,000 in May was up 11.7 percent from $120,000 in May 2000. The median single-family home sale price of $289,500 was down 0.2 percent from $290,000 in May 2000.

For the year, an increase in resales continues to outpace a slight increase in dollar volume, meaning prices have stayed flat.

Home and condominium resales were both up for the first five months of 2001, with 1,308 single-family homes and 1,716 condominiums changing hands. In the same period of 2000, 1,203 single-family homes and 1,559 condominiums were resold.

Dollar sales volume, meanwhile, for the first five months of 2001 was $770.8 million, up only 3.4 percent from $745.1 million in 2000. Median sales prices have declined for the past four years despite a doubling in sales volume since 1996.

"Producing a similar number of sales in 2001 as we had last year would still qualify 2001 as a strong market," said Peter Freeman, president of the Realtors' board. "More importantly, we've not had the price inflation that went along with multi-year expansions in past markets."