Home sales down in April for Big Island and Kauai

April was a soft month for housing markets on Hawaii island and Kauai, where the number of home sales and most median prices declined, according to industry data released Monday.

The data from Hawaii Information Service showed decreases last month that ran counter to a mainly upward trend for sales and median prices over the first four months of the year.

The biggest declines in April occurred on Kauai, where sales fell almost 30 percent.

There were 39 single-family house sales on Kauai last month, down 29 percent from 55 sales in the same month last year. The number of Kauai condo sales also dropped 29 percent to 32 from 45 in the same period.

On Hawaii island, sales volume declines were small. The number of single-family house sales dipped 4 percent to 178 last month from 185 a year earlier. Condo sales slipped 2 percent to 60 from 61 in the same comparable period.

In terms of median prices, there were modest declines except for a gain produced in Kauai’s condo market.

Single-family houses on Hawaii island sold for a median $310,000 last month, down 6 percent from $329,000 a year earlier. Hawaii island’s median condo price decreased 8 percent to $327,000 from $355,000 in the same period.

On Kauai the median sale price for single-family houses slipped 3 percent to $560,000 last month from $575,000 a year earlier. Kauai condos, however, produced a 9 percent gain in the median price to $366,500 in April from $335,000 a year ago.

The median is a point at which half the sales were at a higher price and half at a lower price. The figure is affected by differences in age, size, quality and location of homes sold, which can be more pronounced with relatively few sales.

Over the first four months of this year, the number of sales and median prices for homes on the two neighbor islands were up between 3 percent and 12 percent except for the number of Kauai single-family house sales, which was down 6 percent.