Neighbor Island home prices up

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Neighbor Island home prices continued to surge in January, rising more than 50 percent in three markets and breaking a record at $415,000 for a median-priced condominium on Maui.

The Maui condo price increase was 51 percent over the $275,000 median a year earlier. For the second time in two years, a monthly median price for Maui single-family homes sold topped $600,000, rising 18 percent from $520,000 in January 2004 to $612,000 last month.

The rising prices continued to put pressure on modest-income residents looking to buy a primary residence, especially on Maui and Kaua'i where prices are highest.

"Anything under $2 million is sold," said Laurie Lowson of Lahaina, Maui-based real estate firm Lowson & Associates. "Something for (the average resident) to live in are totally gone."

The median price, which is a point where half the sales were for less and half for more, are generally rising across various submarkets on all islands, but are being inflated by high-priced homes mainly at resorts.

For instance, the median condo price in Central Maui last month was $223,750, according to the Realtors Association of Maui. In resort areas of Ka'anapali, Kapalua and Wailea it was between $700,000 and $860,000.

For single-family homes, the median price was $456,000 in Central Maui, and between $1.4 million and $2.3 million in the same resort areas.

Lowson said she expects Maui median prices to jump again in February and March with significant numbers of million-dollar sales expected to close, with some in the $6 million to $9 million range.

Sales volume, however, is slowing as a result of shrinking inventory. Last month volume dropped 43 percent to 91 for Maui condos, compared with 159 sales in January 2004. Maui single-family home volume was off 7 percent to 91 sales, compared with 98, during the same period.

On Kaua'i, the January median condo price was even higher than Maui's, at $443,000, or 22 percent more than $362,000 a year earlier, according to Hawaii Information Service. Kaua'i single-family homes sold for a median of $575,000, a 58 percent rise from $365,000 in the same period.

Sales were down 2 percent on Kaua'i, as condo volume slipped to 40 from 41, and single-family home volume declined to 57 from 58 during the year-over-year period.

Big Island median prices were up 18 percent to $294,000 from $249,000 for condos, and up 54 percent to $352,750 from $229,500 for single-family homes, according to Hawaii Information Service.

Sales volume was up 9 percent for Big Island condos to 84 last month, compared with 77 in January 2004. Volume was up 1 percent for single-family homes to 190 from 188 in the same period.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.

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