Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

The August Honolulu Board of Realtors stats just came out, and there is good news to be found. Of course the media will have their usually negative point of view, so let’s look at the real numbers.

Hawaii Single Family Home Prices

$635,000 for August. Up from July’s $620,000. This is lower than August 2008 of $650,000. We are still up against the record-setting months of 2007 for SFH median prices, so expect that the media to continue to crow about prices falling. Median prices are down 2.8% compared to last year, average prices up 1.9% with Waialae-Kahala leading the way, up 9.9% year to date over last year.

Hawaii Condo Prices

$328,000 for August. Higher than the $325,000 for August 2007, and just under July’s $329,900. Median prices up 1.5% compared to last year, average prices up 2.9% with downtown-Nuuanu up 16.1%. Prices falling? Not Condos.

Single Family Home Sales

SFH sales at 255 were up for the second straight month. However, sales are down from 381 for August 2007. The August 2007 sales of 381 were the highest for the entire year of 2007. So expect the media to be all over the Huge Decline in sales from last year. Starting in September, the media isn’t going to have much to say because September 2007 SFH sales were 255.

Condo Sales

Condo sales were at 345 for August, down 20 from July and down from August 2007 of 495. In summary, it looks like sales have flattened out, and we may be at the “normal market” range now. Looks like the SFH at ~250; Condos at ~350 may become the norm.

Days on Market (SFH)

The average amount of time that a single family home spends on market is still very low and has gone down this month. This number indicates how long it is taking for people to sell their homes-a low number is an indicator of good market health. At 46 days, DOM for single family homes is down from July’s 52 and just 2 above July 2007’s 44.

Days on Market (Condo)

At 48, DOM are up from July’s 42 and up from 2007’s 38. Again, these are still excellent DOM numbers. Consistent all year.

Inventory

Very steady at 2,119 for SFH and 2,743 for condos. Again, very consistent numbers for 2008.

Months of Remaining Inventory

This stat tells us how long it would theoretically take for all the homes currently on the market to get sold. SFH 8.4, down from July’s 9.0; and Condo at 7.5, down from July’s 7.8. We see solid numbers with an encouraging month-over-month trend.