honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, February 10, 2005

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.

• • •