New-homes sales boom
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i home developers continued building and selling more expensive houses on O'ahu last month, boosting the average price for a new home to the highest in at least five years.
June marked the third consecutive month of higher sales and prices, after dips in February and March.
Consumers contracted to buy 230 new homes during the month, up 47 percent from 156 in June 2001. The number of completed sales recorded in June was up 14 percent, to 152 from 133 in June 2001.
The average price for a new home was $364,487, up 25 percent from the $292,611 average price in the year-ago month.
Ricky Cassiday, a research consultant who compiled the data from developers for Prudential Locations, said strong sales were driven by a couple new projects coming on line and a couple of older projects where sales took off.
Kapolei Kai, a new project by Makai Village Partnership, added 15 sales to the market, while the Cottages, an existing Stanford Carr project in Hawai'i Kai, had 26 sales, compared with three in May, Cassiday said.
Pushing the average sales price up were sales of luxury homes, including the 26 Cottages units at an average price of $455,522, and 10 other homes also built by Carr in Hawai'i Kai for $836,000 on average.
"People are getting into housing the way they want to be," Cassiday said. "They're feeling good enough about their finances to afford it."
The buying also is being driven by low interest rates that continue to make higher-priced homes more affordable.
Cassiday said the strong resale market of existing homes where prices are also rising will only encourage developers of new homes to ask more for their product.
Year to date through June, developers signed 1,000 new-home sales contracts, an increase of 193, or 24 percent, compared with the same period last year. The number of completed sales, which generally trails signed contracts by a few months, is up by 106, or 17 percent, to 717 transactions for the first six months of the year.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
