Annual median price up near $700K

Oahu’s housing market is on the brink of cracking a new 100-grand level — $700,000 — for annual median prices of single-family houses.

After 10 months this year, the median sale price for single-family homes on Oahu has risen to $699,000, according to data released for publication today by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

If the $700,000 mark is eclipsed, it would be nine years after the market topped $600,000.

“I think there’s a very realistic possibility that it will go over $700,000 for the year,” said Scott Higashi, executive vice president of Locations LLC. “We’ve seen a very steady rate of appreciation this year.”

The median home price this year has risen modestly — about 4 percent. By month the median price has ranged between $648,000 and $730,000, the latter of which was achieved in September and represented a record for any single month.

In October the median home sale price was $720,000, up 4.3 percent from $690,000 in the same month last year.

September and October represented the first time the median price was over $700,000 in two consecutive months.

Historically, how long Oahu’s median price took to move into a new 100-grand level has ranged widely. Going over $300,000 happened in 1990, just two years after the median price topped $200,000. It took 14 years to breach $400,000. That happened in 2004. Then the median price rapidly ascended over $500,000 in 2005 and $600,000 in 2006.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization forecast in March that Oahu’s median single-family house sale price would top $700,000 this year at $709,600 based on a 5 percent increase.

UHERO has forecast that the median price will eclipse $800,000 in 2017 at $816,800.

Higashi said he expects this year’s modest growth rate to continue next year.

“It’s kind of been rolling along,” he said. “I think it’s a good pace. We haven’t seen big spikes. It’s been a very healthy, if you want to call it normal, movement forward.”

The modest growth has been driven primarily by a relatively tight supply of housing with few new homes being delivered by developers, low interest rates and rising employment and wages.

In October the number of single-family home sales rose 5 percent to 313 from 298 a year earlier.

“We continued to see robust sales figures and strong demand for housing in October,” Jack Legal, Honolulu Board of Realtors president and owner of Legal Realty in Kapolei, said in a statement.

Legal said more single-family homes were added to the inventory for sale in October than a year earlier — 368 new listings which represented an 8 percent gain over 342 new listings a year earlier — helping keep supply and demand in more of a balance.

“While it’s a relatively small increase, more inventory means more options for potential homebuyers,” he said.

In Oahu’s condominium market the number of sales edged up 1.3 percent to 454 from 448 a year ago.

The median sale price for condos rose 4.9 percent to $370,000 last month from $352,750 a year earlier. The record for any month was $381,500 in January. For the first 10 months of the year, the condo median sale price was up 2.9 percent to $360,000 from $350,000 in the same period last year.