"Honolulu Condos - Real Estate News & Trends"

Every month, we write a newsletter, "Honolulu Condos - Real Estate News & Trends", which also includes our weekly newsletter, "Honolulu Condos - Listing Alerts". Please see below for this month's issue.

Welcome to this month's issue of "Honolulu Condos - Real Estate News & Trends", provided by Douglas / Christopher Realtor Associates with RE/MAX Honolulu. This newsletter is published monthly and contains time sensitive information about the Honolulu Real Estate Market. It also combines the weekly newsletter, "Honolulu Condos - Listing Alerts" which includes current new condo listings and distressed property listings.

Don't miss the HOT LINKS at the bottom of this newsletter for such distressed property listings as:

• Lender Owned Property Listings
• Foreclosure Property Listings
• Short Sale Property Listings

Honolulu Condo Market Update

This month, sales of 345 condominiums were reported through the Board's MLS, an increase of 13.1 percent for condominiums, compared to the same month last year. Total condominium sales through September were 2,338, a 26.32 percent decrease from last year. The median prices paid for island properties in the first nine months of 2009 were $300,000 for condominiums, a decrease of 7.7 percent from the same time period in 2008.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, provided the following commentary on Oahu's housing market:

"Home sales in general in 2009, to-date, were essentially at a 10-year low. One reason for the much lower sales can be explained by stricter mortgage underwriting guidelines. In addition, Hawaii suffers from the credit freeze that is taking place in the jumbo market and for second home purchases. However, the biggest reason for such low sales activity is likely due to fear of further home price declines."

"Consumer psychology appears to be decisively turning for the better as the housing market has been showing signs of bottoming, if it is not already past a bottom point. Affordability conditions are now at multi- year highs thanks to lower home prices and very low mortgage rates on conforming mortgages."

"The first-time homebuyer tax credit is also helping. It is no surprise, therefore, that home sales have begun to rise nationally for 5 straight months. The increases were beyond the normal seasonal uptick in spring and summer."

For Honolulu Neighborhood Market Watch, New Honolulu Condo Listings and Distressed Honolulu Condo Listings and Hot Links, read more.......

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