New home sales double
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Developers of new homes on O'ahu sold twice as many units in April compared with the year before, thanks to initial sales at the largest planned high-rise condominium in town and a recovery from the concrete strike in February and March.
Buyers signed contracts to purchase 495 new homes during the month, up 120 percent from the 225 sales in April 2003, according to a report released yesterday by market researcher Ricky Cassiday for Hawaii HomeLoans.
The sales volume was the highest since Cassiday began tracking data in 1997, and was a rebound from a drop in March.
Driving the record run-up in transactions were 331 sales in the first tower of the 706-unit, twin-tower Moana Pacific condo project on Kapi'olani Boulevard between Pi'ikoi and Pensacola streets.
Barbara Hoy, an interior designer who owns a house in Manoa with her husband, bought one of the units in anticipation of retiring in a few years.
"We decided, hey, this is something we might like to (live in) in a couple of years — we might want to downsize," she said. "It was the perfect opportunity."
Buyers also were more active in the single-family home market, signing contracts to buy 122 houses in April, up 27 percent from 96 in the previous month.
The average price for single-family and condo units was $404,734, up slightly from $399,032 in April 2003.
Cassiday said new homes are priced attractively compared with the resale market, where prices for previously owned homes have risen more dramatically and much of the inventory is of inferior quality compared with new homes.
Of Moana Pacific's 331 unit sales, roughly 100 each were priced from $300,000 to $500,000, $500,000 to $600,000 and $600,000 to $700,000, with 30 at $700,000 to $800,000.
"The reason for their success is their weighting in the lower price ranges," Cassiday said. "It's the sweet spot in the market."
Two other condo high-rises under construction nearby, Hokua and Ko'olani, are priced higher, with units at Hokua selling for about $1 million on average.
After Moana Pacific, the largest number of multifamily project sales in April were at Castle & Cooke's Havens of I'i Vistas in Mililani with 13, and The Coconut Plantation by Brookfield Homes at Ko Olina with 10.
The biggest single-family home sellers were Castle & Cooke's Island Classics in Mililani with 22 sales, Haseko Homes' Ocean Pointe in 'Ewa Beach with 14 sales, and 12 sales at the Renaissance, a Castle & Cooke community in Waipahu.
The strong sales shored up softness in the market earlier this year, when a lag in new condo offerings and the concrete strike put a drain on inventory and resulted in fewer sales during the first three months of the year.
For the first four months of the year, sales were up about 16 percent, to 1,147 from 993 during the same year-ago period.
Cassiday said May sales look like they should continue the growth trend with help from The Colony, a low-rise condo by Stanford Carr Development in Hawai'i Kai. Later this year, sales are expected for the second Moana Pacific tower and 909 Kapiolani, a 225-unit high-rise.
New-home sales data is for signed sales contracts, which typically don't close until units are completed and delivered to buyers, which, in the case of high-rise condos, could be a year or two away.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
