Maui home prices set new record

It took 11 years, but Maui’s real estate market finally eclipsed a prior record for the annual median sale price of single-family homes.

Such homes on Maui sold for a median $695,000 last year and broke an old record that was set at $690,000 in 2006, according to data from the Realtors Association of Maui released Tuesday.

Maui’s housing market has been much more volatile than Oahu’s over the last decade, and the median price had slumped to $432,500 in 2011 after five straight years of falling from the prior peak. Since then the price has been recovering, driven in part by stronger demand. Last year’s median price was up 8.8 percent from $639,000 the year before.

There were 1,099 single-family homes sold last year on the Valley Isle, up 2.1 percent from 1,076 the year before.

In Maui’s condominium market a median price rebound still has a ways to go to. The record was set in 2007 at $550,000. Last year the median condo sale price rose 7.2 percent to $445,000 from $415,000 the year before. The low point since 2007 was $310,000 in 2011.

There were 1,451 condo sales last year, up 10.8 percent from 1,310 the year before.

The Realtors Association of Maui counts sales of previously owned homes as well as new homes in its sale data. The median price is a point at which half the sales were for more and half for less.

For only December, Maui’s median single-family home sale price slipped 0.8 percent to $695,500 from $701,000 in the same month last year. The number of sales was down 10.2 percent to 88 from 98 in the same period.

Maui condos sold for a median $440,000 in December, up 7.1 percent from $411,000 a year earlier. The number of sales was up 14 percent to 138 from 121 in the same period.