New home sales rebound
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
After a two-month dip, the number of new homes sold on O'ahu rebounded in April as home builders created more inventory for prospective home buyers, according to the latest industry statistics.
Developers signed 161 sales contracts for the month, a 35-percent increase over 119 in April 2001. The number of completed sales was up 41 percent, with 137 in April compared with 97 in the same month a year earlier.
Prices were higher, too. The average new home cost $338,486 in April this year, a 22 percent hike from $277,117 a year ago.
Ricky Cassiday, who compiled the sales data for Prudential Locations, said preliminary May sales figures also look positive, mirroring the strength in the resale market where sales rose about 24 percent last month despite higher prices.
"Developers got product out and they met people willing to buy it," he said.
Historic low interest rates at around 6.5 percent have encouraged builders and home buyers and helped people afford larger and more luxurious homes.
The new-home sales dips in February and March were partly attributed to a short-lived consumer confidence softening in reaction to economic news following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and partly to dwindling inventory.
April sales activity, however, was boosted by two new projects: Stanford Carr's Peninsula Villas in Hawai'i Kai and Castle & Cooke's Heritage at Lehiwa Ridge in Mililani, Cassiday said.
Ten units at the Villas, a multi-family townhouse project, sold at an average price of $368,000. At the Heritage, a single-family project, 13 units sold at an average price of $371,894.
Sales also were strong in April for Brookfield Homes Hawaii, which signed 12 purchase agreements at its Ko Olina project, The Coconut Plantation.
Principal broker Elarka Yuen said the company benefited from effective marketing to, and travel by, its primary customers, California residents looking to move to Hawai'i or purchase second homes here.
"We're just about sold out of standing inventory," she said, adding that Brookfield just released for sale 16 more units that won't be ready for delivery until December. "The reception has been terrific."
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
