A lot more people bought homes on Maui in November than they did in the same month last year, but prices paid generally were up in one part of the market and down in another.
Sales of condominiums on the Valley Isle surged the most, jumping 50 percent to 111 transactions last month compared with 74 a year earlier.
The volume also jumped for sales of single-family homes, rising 26 percent to 91 transactions last month from 72 a year earlier.
The Realtors Association of Maui gave the figures in a report released Thursday night. The trade association counts sales of previously owned and new homes but doesn’t specify figures for each category. So the reason for large swings in sales volume sometimes can be due to multiple sales closing for a new subdivision or condo project.
Terry Tolman, chief executive of the association, said in an email accompanying the report that sales in November 2015 were unusually low and made last month’s volume look stronger than it actually was.
Median prices in November were mixed, with a gain for single-family homes and a reduction for condos.
The median single-family home sale price rose 15 percent to $635,000 last month from $550,000 a year earlier. Much of the increase was from sales in the most active part of Maui’s single-family home market, Central Maui, where there were 34 sales for a median $550,750 last month compared with 26 sales for a median $459,500 last year.
For condos the median sale price sank 20 percent to $380,000 last month from $475,000 a year earlier. The decline was largely related to sales in one of the three busiest areas for condo sales — Napili/Kahana/Honokowai — where there were 21 sales last month for a median $315,000 compared with 20 sales for a median $422,500 a year earlier.
The median price is a point at which half the sales were for more and half for less, so the measure can be influenced by the age,
size, quality and location of homes sold.
