I have been digging through last month’s sales numbers to come up with the unofficial May Maui Real Estate statistics. I imagine we will see the official stats coming out sometime later this week or early next week. I think I will have caught almost all of last month’s sales, but there may still be a few stragglers unreported to the Maui MLS as of this date.
Sales numbers for homes looked pretty healthy at first glance with 98 homes sold at an average of 147 days on market. The median sales price for homes was $565,000. This compares with 101 closes at a median sales price of $653,746. The May 2007 home sales averaged 158 days on market.
The condo sales figures look to be down a little with 84 closes in May at a median sales price of $512,500. They averaged 147 days on market. The May 2007 numbers were 111 sales at a median price of $531,325. Condos averaged 153 days on market in May of 2007.
The land sales figures remain very slow for Maui continuing a trend that started in the second half of 2007. There were 9 sales at a median price of $600,000 with an average days on market of 193. Volume was down sharply from the same time in 2007 with only 9 sales. Those 9 parcels had a median price of $600,000 and 193 days on market.
I have a few quick thoughts and observations on the numbers above. First, I give you my standard disclaimer. The sample size of the Maui Real Estate market is small enough that month to month changes are not always a direct reflection of market conditions. Instead those changes may be more a reflection of variations in inventory sold. New project sales can have a big influence on changes.
The home sales volume looked pretty good for May. This is the highest single month total for the year. It is also only 3 below last year. That is particularly good when you consider year to date sales volume was down 31% for single family homes through April. Days on market were also down, but that stat deserves an asterisk. There were 26 entries showing zero days on market. If you strip out those 26, the average days on market is 202 days. Doing the same to last year’s numbers, they averaged 203 days on market. There is no marked increase year to year, but seller’s need to have realistic expectations on the average time to sell a home.
The median home price shows a pretty healthy decrease year to year. I think the market trend of price adjustment downwards is realistic, but I think this is best compared over a longer period of time. Last month’s 18 affordable housing sales probably drags the median down a little. That being said, we also had a good month for luxury properties with 4 sales over $5,000,000. I talk about this in a little greater detail in my recent Maui Luxury Real Estate Market Update.
Condos had an off month. After being down 7% in volume for most of the year, we saw almost a 25% decrease from May of 07’s numbers. A difference in new project sales can account for some of that drop. The 2007 numbers featured 23 new project sales vs only 10 this year. If you factor out new project sales, the drop in volume is not quite as drastic, but it is still a decrease nonetheless.
Overall, our market continues to see activity. We are seeing price adjustments and a dip in volume of sales, but thus far we are weathering things better than most mainland markets. There are opportunities out there for buyers with inventory to choose from and a number of motivated sellers. Sellers are looking at a buyers market. Those that need to sell should price themselves to stand out against comps and the rest of the market or they can expect a longer period on market. Land has been the one real weak spot and we are continuing to see more significant price adjustments among motivated sellers.
It will be interesting to see what happens with statistics over the next couple of months. The May stats are a more a reflection of buyers purchasing decisions in February, April and May. There may be signs of a continued slow down in volume of sales. It is noteworthy that the number of pending contracts on island has been dipping steadily over the last month or two as properties have been closing, but fewer properties have been going under contract. Some of that is a reflection of the fact that we are past peak winter buyer’s season. We may also feeling some impact from the shut down of two major airlines that service the island. This has reduced our visitor numbers. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions. We will be posting the official stats on THE Maui Real Estate blog as soon as they become available.
