It rose only 3.9 percent, but the median price of Oahu single-family houses sold in July hit a year-to-date high that also was the second-highest price for any month in history.
At $710,000, last month’s median price was second only to $719,500 reached in November, and represents a continuation of mostly modest increases in median home sale prices for the first six months of this year compared with the same months last year.
In July 2014 the median price was $683,500. Prior to last month the highest median price this year was $700,000 in March and June.
The Honolulu Board of Realtors released the July data for publication Friday.
“July continued the healthy trend in housing sales that we saw in the previous month,” Jack Legal, board president and owner of Legal Realty in Kapolei, said in a statement.
For the first seven months of this year, the median single-family house sale price is up just 2.3 percent to $690,000 from $674,700 in the same period last year.
If that pace of growth holds for the rest of 2015, it would represent the smallest annual increase during the last four years, when median prices grew between 3.8 and 7.8 percent.
The number of homes sold in July rose 12.3 percent to 337 from 300 a year earlier. This year through July, sales are up 4.8 percent to 1,926 homes from 1,837 in the same period last year.
Condominium sales saw similar volume increases in July and for the first seven months of the year, though median prices dipped slightly to mark a second straight month of year-over-year declines.
There were 501 condos sold on Oahu last month, up 12.8 percent from 444 a year earlier. Through July there were 2,884 sales, up 4.9 percent from 2,750 a year earlier.
The median condo sale price slipped 0.5 percent to $350,000 in July from $351,750 a year earlier. That followed June’s 6 percent decline to $338,500 from $360,000 in June 2014.
Legal said more sales of less pricey condos was pleasing, in that it means more affordable housing was sold. About a third of the condos that sold for less than July’s $350,000 median price were in Makaha, Makakilo, Makiki and the Ala Moana area, he said.
The median price is a point at which half the homes sold for less and half for more.
This year through July, the median condo sale price is up 2.6 percent at $359,000 from $350,000 a year earlier. During the prior three years, Oahu’s median condo sale price rose between 4.6 and 5.8 percent.
HOME SALES
The number of homes sold on Oahu in July with the median price and percentage change from the same month last year:
HOMES
|
SALES MEDIAN PRICE |
July 2015 337 $710,000 |
July 2014 300 $683,500 |
Change +12.3% +3.9% |
CONDOS
|
SALES MEDIAN PRICE |
July 2015 501 $350,000 |
July 2014 444 $351,750 |
Change +12.8% -0.5% |
Source: Honolulu Board of Realtors