Median house price rose on Maui in 2016

The median sale price for Maui single-family homes last year returned to a place it had not been in nine years: above $600,000.

According to an annual report from the Realtors Association of Maui, homes sold for a median $636,750 last year, a 10 percent gain from $580,000 the year before.

It was the fifth consecutive year of annual price gains for Maui’s housing market, which followed five years of significant declines after a record was set in 2006 at $690,000. The last time the median price was above $600,000 was in 2007, when it was $630,069.

Last year ended on a very high note, with the median sale price for single-family homes hitting $700,000 in December, a 27 percent jump from $550,000 in the same month the year before. December’s median price was higher than any prior month since September 2006, when the median was $769,000, but close to January 2014’s median of $695,000.

The median is a point at which half the sales were at a higher price and half at a lower price. This measure can be swayed by the age, size, quality and location of homes sold. Additionally, the Realtors Association of Maui includes sales of previously owned homes as well as new homes in its report, unlike a similar report on Oahu that counts only previously owned homes.

Sales volume for single-family homes on the Valley Isle slipped 1 percent to 1,076 last year from 1,090 the year before. The number of sales in December was 97, up from 93 in the same month the year before.

For condominiums on Maui the median sale price last year was $415,000. That was up 1 percent from $410,000 the year before and also matched the 2014 median price. The record was $550,000 in 2007.

In December condos sold for a median $414,500 compared with $410,000 in the same month the year before.

There were 1,310 Maui condos sold last year, up 10 percent from 1,189 in the year before. December condo sales totaled 122, up from 101 in the same month the year before.