Oahu home sales snap negative streak

Oahu home prices didn’t budge much in April, but the same wasn’t true for sale volume, which surged for single-family homes and plummeted for condominiums.

A Honolulu Board of Realtors report released Monday showed that the median price for previously owned single-family homes slipped 2.9% to $766,750 in April from $790,000 in the same month last year while the same measure for condos edged up 0.7% to $418,950 from $416,000.

Sale volume, in contrast, exhibited double-digit swings. The number of single-family homes sold jumped 10% to 318 last month from 289 a year earlier. Condo sales sank 13% to 476 from 547 in the same year-over-year period.

Condo sale volume has shrunk for nine consecutive months. The rise in sales for single-family homes in April ended a string of 11 straight months of year-over-year declines.

Jenny Brady, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors and an agent with Hokua Hawaii Realty LLC, highlighted the single-family home sales gain as a bright spot in the report.

“Low mortgage interest rates, coupled with more inventory on the market compared to last year, presented better opportunities for potential homebuyers and spurred more of them to buy,” she said in a statement.

There also was more inventory in the condo market last month, yet sales slumped.

There were 2,404 Oahu condos listed for sale last month. That was up from 2,349 in March and was the highest level since 2009. Last year, monthly condo inventory ranged from 1,699 to 2,123.

Single-family home listings reached 1,555 last month, which was up from 1,495 in March and had not been higher since 2011. Last year, monthly single-family home inventory ranged from 1,003 to 1,454.

More inventory combined with fewer sales is one reason why median prices have not budged much this year in Hawaii’s primary, and generally softened, housing market.

This year through April, single-family home sales are down 1.4% and the median price is up a scant 0.2%. For condos, sales are down 11.2% and the median price is down 2.4% in the same period.

In recent years, stronger demand and less supply helped push up prices moderately.

Some economists still expect small gains for Oahu median home sale prices this year. The median price is a point at which half the sales are at a higher price and half are at a lower price.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization on Friday released a forecast in which it expects the single-family home median price will edge 2% higher this year to just over $800,000 from $790,000 last year while the median condo prices does a little better with a 3.2% gain to just over $430,000 from $420,000.

HOMES

APRIL / SALES / MEDIAN PRICE

2019 318 $766,750

2018 289 $790,000

Change 10.0% -2.9%

CONDOS

APRIL / SALES / MEDIAN PRICE

2019 476 $418,950

2018 547 $416,000

Change -13.0% 0.7%

Source: Honolulu Board of Realtors