Oahu home sales
down again in May

The drop comes after three months
of beating last year's numbers

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Home and condominium resales on Oahu dropped sharply last month compared with May 1996 and so did the median sales prices, the Honolulu Board of Realtors said today.

In its monthly report, the board said that resales of existing single-family homes on Oahu fell 9.6 percent in May, after three straight months of running ahead of last year's sales.

Condominium resales were off 15.6 percent last month compared with May 1996, after an upturn in April.

Prices were down in the year-to-year comparison but the median price for single-family homes were higher than in either of the previous two months, the Realtors said. The group said this shows that the homes being sold are not just at the low end of the price scale.

The $310,000 median price among previously owned single-family homes changing owners last month was 9.9 percent below the May 1996 median of $344,000 but better than the $279,000 median in April or the $305,000 March median.

The condominium median price, the point at which half the sales were for more and half for less, was $148,300, 18.5 percent below the May 1996 median of $182,000.

C. Scott Bradley, president of the 4,100-member trade association, found some positive signs in last month's activities.

The pace of sales was higher, he said, with single-family homes staying on the market for a median of 63 days, the shortest listing period in two years, and condominium units staying on the market a median of 67 days before being sold, the shortest since January 1994.

"We are seeing that the sales speed continues to increase for all residential properties," Bradley said. That indicates that properties are being listed at appropriate prices, he said.

Meanwhile, Bradley said the board's home page on the Internet (http://hicentral.com) now has details of about 5,000 residences for sale, and can be searched by location, price range or both.