Neighbor island housing markets were choppy in February with a mix of higher and lower median prices and sales volume, according to trade association data released over the weekend.
Maui’s market was the most calm with largely single-digit changes, while Hawaii island had some extraordinarily big movement up and down.
The biggest collection of pricey homes was sold on Kauai, where the median sale price for single-family houses in February was $650,000. However, that was down 11 percent from $730,000 in the same month last year.
Prices last month on Kauai included eight homes in the Hanalei area that sold for a median $958,500 at the high end and three homes in Lihue that sold for a median $470,000 at the low end.
Kauai condominiums sold for a median $345,000 in February, up 10 percent from $315,000 a year earlier.
The number of sales on Kauai was relatively small. There were 37 single-family home sales last month, up 48 percent from 25 sales a year earlier. There were 21 condo sales compared with 23 in the same comparable period.
On Hawaii island, the biggest change was a 61 percent gain in the median condo sale price to $360,000 last month from $223,500 a year earlier. The spike was largely the result of fewer sales at the lower end of the market in North Kona. Higher purchase prices in North Kona also helped. There were 25 sales for a median $275,000 last month in this region compared with 35 sales for a median $215,000 a year earlier.
The median is the point at which half the sales were at a higher price and half at a lower price.
Overall, there were 43 condo sales on Hawaii island last month, down 26 percent from 58 sales a year earlier.
There were 190 Hawaii island single-family homes sold in February, up 34 percent from 142 sales in the same month last year. The median sale price was $300,000, down 9 percent from $329,000.
Maui’s single-family home median sale price was $595,000 last month, up 7 percent from $558,625 a year earlier. The median price last month was based on 69 sales, up 15 percent from 60 sales a year earlier.
Maui condos sold for a median $444,450 last month, down 6 percent from $475,000 a year earlier. There were 102 Maui condo sales in February, up 7 percent from 95 a year earlier.
The data for sales was supplied by the Realtors Association of Maui, Hawaii Island Realtors and the Kauai Board of Realtors. Hawaii Information Service organized and released the data for the latter two organizations.
Data for the three neighbor island housing markets isn’t comparable to Oahu, where sales figures were released for publication Monday. That’s because the Honolulu Board of Realtors includes sales information for only previously owned homes on Oahu. The other trade organizations also include new homes that can skew data given that new homes typically are pricier than otherwise comparable older homes.
