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C. Maui housing prices climbing

Central Maui, consistently the busiest housing market in Maui County, hit a 12-month-high median housing price at $650,000 in August as median prices countywide held steady at $700,000.

The rise in prices is a recent trend. In August 2016, the median price for Central Maui single-family homes was $579,000, about 12 percent lower. Since then, prices have risen and fallen within the $500,000 range. But recently, the median began to climb — hitting $607,000 in May, $633,990 in June and $616,425 in July.

Last month, buyers purchased 29 single-family homes in Central Maui, the most of any district, according to the Realtors Association of Maui’s latest report. So far this year, 224 single-family homes have been sold in Central Maui, double the 110 homes sold thus far in Kihei, which holds the No. 2 spot.

Although August “tends to mark the waning of housing activity ahead of the school year,” according to the report, there were still 105 single-family homes sold in August, the second highest monthly total over the past 12 months.

In August, the median price for a single-family home stayed at $700,000, the fourth month in a row that’s happened and the fifth time in 2017. Meanwhile, the median price of a condominium dropped by 9 percent from $440,000 in July to $400,000 in August. Last month, 110 condos were sold countywide, just under the average of 114 condos per month over the past 12 months.

Haiku, Kihei and the Kula-Ulupalakua-Kanaio area all tied for second in the single-family housing market, with 10 homes sold in each district. In Haiku, the August median price was $652,500, a 19 percent decrease from August 2016’s $808,000. In Kihei, the median price was $694,750, not far off from the median price a year earlier. Numbers were also similar for the Kula-Ulupalakua-Kanaio area, where the median was $702,000.

The most expensive sales in August were in Kapalua, where three single-family homes sold at a median price of $2.6 million.

Single-family houses purchased in August had been on the market for an average of 102 days. So far this year, houses have been staying on the market for less time than last year. In 2016, the average number of days on the market for single-family was around 120; so far this year, it’s 100.

As for condominiums, most were sold in the Kihei area. The 45 condos that buyers scooped up in August went for a median price of $378,000, a 5 percent uptick from August 2016. Second to Kihei was the Napili-Kahana-Honokowai area with 19 condos sold at a median price of $400,000. Central Maui came in third with 18 condos — twice as many as in July — at a median price of $240,000.

The most expensive condos were located in the Wailea-Makena area, where five condos sold at a median price of $1.9 million.

Condos purchased in August had been on the market for an average of 97 days, the lowest average so far this year. Unlike with single-family homes, condos are staying on the market for roughly the same amount of time as they were last year. The average in 2016 was about 119 days on the market; so far this year, it’s 115.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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