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A rebound in Oahu’s housing market gained strength in April with a burst of sales driven by pent-up buyer demand and more homes listed for sale.
The biggest spike occurred in the island’s condominium market where sales of previously owned units soared 88% to 645 last month from 343 in the same month last year, according to Honolulu Board of Realtors data released Thursday.
This jump in condo sale volume followed a 53% year-over-year increase in March, 41% in February and 3% in January.
April’s surge was expected because sales a year earlier fell hard — 28% — as effects from the spread of COVID-19 began to take hold with sellers postponing sale efforts, buyers not being able to complete purchases because of income losses and a prohibition on open houses.
Still, the size of last month’s rebound, driven significantly by pent-up buyer demand, was exceptional given that the last time there were more than 645 condo sales in any month was in March 2006 during a frenzied real estate market boom.
Jason Lazzerini, president and CEO of residential real estate brokerage firm Locations, said in a company report that factors driving condo sales in April also included sub-3% mortgage interest rates and more buyers being edged out of the single-family home market because of near-record prices and incredibly low inventory.
“Coupled with decades of pent-up demand, there’s no end in sight to current market conditions,” he said.
Despite the spike in sales, the median sale price for condos last month stayed the same as a year earlier at $450,000.
The median resale price for single-family houses on Oahu was $928,000 in April, up 15% from $809,000 in the same month last year and not far from a record $950,000 in March.
There were 375 single- family home sales last month, a 51% gain from 248 a year earlier.
Bill Ward, an agent with Corcoran Pacific Properties, said a lot of buyers from the mainland are moving here to work remotely while many local buyers are improving their housing situation to accommodate better working-from-home conditions.
“We’re so busy it’s almost like triage,” he said. “You handle what you can.”
Bridget Townsend, another Corcoran Pacific agent, said it takes a lot of tenaciousness and patience to be a buyer in what she characterized as an “almost unbelievable” market packed with competition.
More sellers recently have been putting homes on the market, which is helping facilitate sales. However, the level of inventory remains far below what it has been in recent years.
There were 459 single- family home listings added to the market last month, up from 439 in March and 322 in February. Yet the number of active listings last month, 759, compared with 1,173 a year earlier and more than 1,500 during much of 2019.
Condo inventory benefited from 706 new listings in April and 715 in February after closer to 400 or 500 additions during most months last year. Total listings, however, stood at 1,808 last month, which Locations said was a more than 40-year low.
Shannon Heaven, Honolulu Board of Realtors president and an agent with Property Profiles Inc., said in the trade association’s report that new listings are quickly being claimed amid pent-up buyer demand.
Condos spent a median 13 days on the market in April before a purchase offer was accepted, the shortest period in more than two years during which the median mostly ranged from 20 to 30 days, while a nine-day median time on the market for single-family homes continued for a fourth straight month after being between 15 and 30 days during most of the past two years.
“Sustained demand and low inventory levels remain constants in our real estate market, and when paired with historically low interest rates, it creates the fast-paced, competitive environment we see in today’s market,” Heaven said.
HOME SALES
The number of homes sold on Oahu in April with the median price and percentage change from the same month last year:
HOMES
SALES MEDIAN PRICE
April 2021 375 $928,000
April 2020 248 $809,000
Change 51.2% 14.7%
CONDOS
SALES MEDIAN PRICE
April 2021 645 $450,000
April 2020 343 $450,000
Change 88% 0%
Source: Honolulu Board of Realtors
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