Luxury sales lifted Maui housing in July

More sales of luxury homes in resort areas helped produce a surge in the median sale price of housing on Maui last month, according to a report from the Realtors Association of Maui.

The median sale price of single-family houses on the Valley Isle rose 21 percent to $573,750 in July from $475,000 in the same month last year.

Several sales of million-dollar homes helped boost the median, which is a point at which half the sales were for a higher price and half for a lower price.

For instance, there were five sales in the Kaanapali area for a median $1.7 million last month compared with one sale for $1.2 million a year earlier. And in the Wailea/Makena area, there were two sales for a median $6.2 million last month compared with no sales a year earlier.

In Central Maui, the island’s biggest housing market, there were 31 sales in July for a median $449,560 compared with 19 sales a year earlier for a median $409,255.

There were 98 total single-family house sales last month on Maui, a 5 percent increase from 93 a year earlier.

For condominiums, the number of sales plummeted 27 percent to 82 last month from 112 a year earlier.

The median price rose 8 percent to $387,500 from $357,625.