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Honolulu topped the list of 100 major U.S. metropolitan areas in terms of the increase in home prices year over year in July, according to Homes.com, a Norfolk, Va., real estate website.
The real estate site calculates a Local Market Index based on sales data from the same homes over time. The survey includes homes sold in July 2012 and again a year later. Honolulu scored a 29.17 on the index in July, up 13.5 percent from July 2012.
Honolulu had the largest point jump in its index number in the past year. The next top eight markets were all in California.
Among midsize markets, Hilo saw the largest year-over-year gain in its index number to 34.19, or up 17.43 percent, while Kahului-Wailuku was third with a 25.25 on the index, up 13.23 percent in a year.
Local economists earlier this year predicted that Oahu’s housing market would flirt with a banner year in 2013 given beneficial economic factors that include record Hawaii tourism, rising employment and low mortgage interest rates.
One big reason for price appreciation is a relative dearth of new homes being built and a tight supply of existing homes available for resale.
The latest home sales data released by the Honolulu Board of Realtors earlier this month showed that the median condo sale price rose in August to $350,000 — its highest for any month — and up 9 percent from $320,000 in the same month last year.
In Oahu’s single-family house market, the median in August rose 9 percent to $665,000 from $609,000 in the same month last year.
So far this year, the single-family house median price is at $639,000, or just $4,500 shy of the $643,500 annual peak set in 2007.
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