Hawaii Real Estate Reporter

The Honolulu Board of Realtors released its statistics wrap-up regarding Hawaii Housing in August 2009. These stats continue to show upward price pressure.
Click here to Download August 2009 HBR Stats

Number of Sales.
Sales for SFH dropped for the first time this year from 265 in July to 247 in August. However, Condo sales jumped again, from 327 in July to 351 in August. This is the highest number of Condo sales this year, and higher than August 2008.

Median prices down.
This has been expected for the last few months. Remember, median prices don’t mean very much. They are measuring what has been purchased, so they are more about choice than about price changes. With all of the FTHB, I am surprised median prices stay as high as they do. Expect the media to play these up however.

Days on Market.
Days on market are low again, with Condos dropping to 51 from 56 in July. SFH are at 48, just two more than July’s 46. These are only slightly higher than last year.

Inventory – down again.
Now here is where the news really is. Inventories for both SFH and Condos are way down. SFH at #1,624 are down from July’s 1,653, and well below August 2008’s #2,119. Condos at #2,140 are down from July’s 2,279, and far below August 2008’s 2,743. We haven’t seen inventories this low since January of 2006. This is the big news!

Months of Remaining Inventory.
MORI are way down, again. SFH MORI were 6.1 down from July’s 6.5 and well below August 2008’s 8.4. Condo MORI at 6.5 was far below July’s 7.8; and below August 2008’s 7.5. Keep in mind that MORI of 6.0 is the dividing line between buyers and sellers markets. The direction is clear. If this trend holds, we are headed toward a seller’s market.