Residential real estate ‘still hot’

The number of single-family homes on the market on Oahu increased again last month, and the median sales price took a slight dip, but month-to-month comparisons for August 2015 and 2014 show moderate growth in the island’s housing prices, according to a report released Monday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

In August the median sales price for single-family homes was $699,000, down slightly from $710,000 in July but up 7.5 percent compared with August 2014. So far this year the average median sales price for single-family homes is $693,000, compared with $665,000 at this time last year.

Among condo sales, the median sales price for two-bedroom units crept up a hair since July to $354,000, but that was still below the year’s high of $381,500 in January.

“The market is still hot,” said Jack Legal, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors. “It’s pretty much like the weather.”

He said the greatest increases in single-family home sales were in Hawaii Kai, Kalihi-Palama and Waialae-Kahala, with lesser increases in Kaneohe and Makaha-Nanakuli.

The Board of Realtors, using data from its Multiple Listing Service, releases a monthly report of resales of existing properties on Oahu. The report doesn’t include new home sales.

Inventory of single-family homes increased for the eighth month in a row to 1,354 in August but declined about 8 percent to 1,876 for condos.

Legal said he was pleased to see an increase in inventory of homes but would like to see a bigger increase, which could push market prices down a bit to stabilize the market and make homes affordable for more people.

But despite the high prices, people were still buying homes, keeping market activity about average with the median days on the market for single-family homes at 20 days and the median days on the market for condos at 19 days in August.

Legal said August’s market conditions were a win-win for buyers and sellers and will probably continue this month. He said buyers can take advantage of low interest rates, and sellers can get the prices they want in the active market.

The market typically slows down a bit in sales around December as people get busy with the holidays.

Meanwhile, Honolulu had the fourth-highest median sales price for single-family homes in metropolitan areas across the country in the second quarter of 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Honolulu was behind San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.; San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.; and Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif., which had median single-family home sales prices of $980,000, $841,600 and $713,200, respectively.

Honolulu’s median single-family home sales price was $698,600.

Immediately behind Honolulu was San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif., and New York-Wayne-White Plains, N.Y.-N.J., with $547,800 and $473,200 single-family home median sales prices, respectively.