Time for my weekly look at the week’s real estate activity on Maui. These are unprecedented times. Our goal is to provide buyers and sellers with the latest data to give them a sense of how Covid-19 is impacting our real estate market.
Maui Realtors reported a total of 33 new pending sales for the seven day period between April 22nd and April 28th. That number includes 21 new contracts on homes and 12 new contracts for condos. No land listings went under contract. The 33 pending is a 22% increase over last week. That said, it is 51% lower than the same seven day span last year.
Notes on This Week’s Pending Sales
- After sinking to truly anemic levels of activity earlier in the month, pending sales increased by a healthy amount over the last two weeks.
- Pending home sales continues to be stronger than pending condo sales. New pending home sales outpaced condo sales for four out of the five weeks since Maui went under stay at home orders.
- The composition of this week’s condo sales is different than last week. The week prior, 75% of the condos that went under contract were vacation rentals. This week it was 50% vacation rentals.
- The lower priced non-vacation condo market showed almost no activity this month prior to this week. This week, four condos fitting that description went under contract. I will be keeping an eye on that market segment going forward. These condos typically have a lot of buyers, sellers and renters who work in Maui’s tourism and service industries. These industries continue to be hard hit economically due to Covid-19.
- I am not reading too much into the goose egg for pending land sales this week. Land activity is typically slower on Maui and it tends to fluctuate more irregularly.
This Week’s Sales
Realtors reported 42 sales last week. The sales included 15 homes, 23 condos and 4 parcels of land. That is up 20% from last week, but down 22% from the same seven day span last year. It is worth noting that only two of the 42 sales are from contracts written after Maui’s stay at home order went into effect. The 42 sales also include six sales in Luana Gardens at Honua Kai. All of those contracts were written in 2018.
Based on the above, I would suspect we might see a further dip in weekly sales activity in the coming weeks. The sales numbers are down from what we were seeing the year prior. Pendings started to dip in that first and second week of March and that is reflected in the sales. That said, I suspect we will really see a couple of slow sales weeks when we are 45-60 days out from late March and early April when new pending sales were at their lowest.
Looking Ahead
Last week, the governor extended stay at home orders through the end of May. That said, restrictions are easing a little with some golf courses opening, selected parks opening and a few more businesses such as Car Dealerships opening. The time frame to reopen for tourism remains something of an unknown. It will be interesting to watch if the slight easing of restrictions does anything to bolster the real estate market. We will continue to provide weekly data on Maui Real Estate activity.
While clearly slower, people are still buying and selling real estate. Contact the Maui Real Estate Team if you are in the market for property on Maui. We welcome the chance to discuss your needs and market conditions in this unparalleled time.
