Within a short while of my publishing the unofficial December Maui Real Estate Statistics, the Realtors Association of Maui posted their official statistics on their site. There were no real changes that I could see between their big picture numbers and my big picture number. As always, they are able to provide a level of granularity with additional details on monthly sales at a community level. Here is a link to the official RAM December 2009 Maui Real Estate Statistics.

Being that it is December, this month’s statistics also provided an opportunity to look back at the year and compare volume and median with the 2008 sales numbers.

For home sales, we saw a decrease in sales volume of 24% and a decrease in median prices of 14%. Condo sales were up 4% in volume while median prices came down 18%. Land sales were up 10% while median prices were down 31%.

Of the stats above, I think we can glean the most from the changes in median. This gives a pretty good sense of year to year price adjustments on island. Land is something of an exception in that the sample size is small enough that it may not be a true indicator of price adjustments.

The changes in sales volume probably should come with a few caveats. Condo sales numbers were really bumped this year by what I have referred to as the Honua Kai Effect. This big complex in Ka’anapali had a number of closes in 2009. Many of the sales stem from contracts originally written way back in 2005 and 2006. While it is notable that the buyers were willing and able to close on these long term contracts, they may not be a reflection of 2009 market demand. On the home sales front, the 2008 numbers were bolstered by a number of long term new project closes in Wailuku. The 2009 numbers saw no real new development closes. This makes the 2009 numbers look a little worse comparatively than they might have been otherwise.

It is also worth noting, that 2009 was a year of two halves at least from a volume perspective. While the first part of the year was slower, we saw momentum increase throughout the second half of the year. It will be interesting to see how and if we can sustain/build on that momentum in 2010. Feel free to contact us f you are thinking of buying or selling property on Maui in the coming year. We are happy to offer our services.