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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, July 8, 2006

Maui sees prices rise, sales fall

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

This Kihei, Maui, property is on the market for $759,000, which is $1,000 more than the median price for single-family homes sold last month on the island. The property has four bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage built in 1976.

Fred Haywood Realty

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Maui led the Neighbor Island housing market with the largest median price increase and greatest drop in the number of sales for previously owned homes in June.

Sales also declined on Kaua'i and the Big Island, where median prices for single-family homes and condominiums were mixed in a reflection of the state's cooling housing market.

The biggest price increase was for Maui condos, which sold for a record median of $675,000, up 74.2 percent from $387,500 a year earlier. In May the median was $599,500.

Maui also saw the biggest slowdown in the number of condo sales, which fell 47.9 percent to 101 in June compared with 194 a year earlier.

Single-family home sales on Maui declined 43.8 percent in June to 82, compared with 146 a year earlier. The median price was $758,000, which was up 4.2 percent from $727,500 a year earlier and $729,000 in May. The record was set in May 2005 at $780,000.

Maui real estate agent Fred Haywood, broker-in-charge at Fred Haywood Realty, said weaker demand and higher interest rates are putting the brakes on the market.

"Every day on Maui there are more price reductions than new listings," he said. "The fight for price is increasing."

Haywood said that Mainland visitors, who drive a large part of Maui's housing market with second-home purchases, are wary that a more severe slowdown in Mainland markets will hit the Valley Isle.

"There's no panic," he said. "They're just concerned. Buyers are getting a little more discriminating."

On Kaua'i, median prices and sales were lower in June compared with a year earlier.

The harshest drop was a 41.4 percent decline in single-family home sales to 41 in June from 70 a year earlier.

Kaua'i's median single-family home price in June was $599,000, down 14.1 percent from $697,000 a year earlier.

The median condo price on Kaua'i in June was $424,000, down 5.8 percent from $450,000 a year earlier. There were 62 sales, down 16.2 percent from 74, in the same period.

Big Island single-family home sales declined by 35.6 percent to 190 in June, compared with 295 sales a year earlier.

The median price, however, was up 12 percent to $444,500, compared with $397,000 a year earlier.

Condo sales on the Big Island were down 39.1 percent to 67 in June, compared with 110 a year earlier.

The median price was down 4.8 percent to $369,000 from $387,500 in the same period.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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