Maui sees slump in home prices

A mansion with spectacular ocean views in Kapalua, Maui, sold for $14 million last month, but the sale along with a handful of other high-end homes wasn’t enough to keep the median price from declining in February.

The Realtors Association of Maui reported that 57 single-family homes sold in February for a median $440,000, or 12.7 percent less than the median $504,150 in the same month a year earlier, when there were 54 sales.

Maui’s largest submarket for single-family homes, Central Maui, accounted for 16 sales for a median $392,500 in February, compared with 14 sales for a median $450,170 a year earlier.

The Central Maui activity largely drove the overall decrease in the islandwide single-family home median sale price, which is a point at which half of all the sales were at a higher price and half at a lower price.

In Kapalua the $14 million sale, along with a second sale for $3.25 million in the West Maui resort area, provided some upward lift for the islandwide median, but only a bit. Of 13 regions on Maui that had sales last month and a year earlier, nine had lower median prices last month versus a year earlier.

The pricey Kapalua home had been on the market since December 2009 with an asking price of $16 million. The 11,399-square-foot home overlooking the 18th tee of the Plantation Golf Course was built in 2005 with features including Venetian plaster walls, a 700-gallon saltwater aquarium, a staff apartment, ocean views and an infinity pool and spa.

In Maui’s condominium market, the number of sales in February was unchanged at 95 compared with the same month last year, but the median price was down 11.3 percent to $376,000 from $424,000.

Kihei accounted for the most condo sales in February with 42, which was up from 30 a year earlier. The $257,750 median price in Kihei was down from $270,000 in the same period.