December Oahu Stats and a 2011 Market Summary for Oahu Real Estate Trend

The Oahu Real Estate stats continue to show an active market with sales increasing, days on market low, and extremely low inventory levels. Normally, those stats indicate upward price pressure for Oahu real estate , and would be giving us climbing median prices. Median prices have remained unusually, almost inexplicably flat!!!

The reason could be a combination of the way median prices are calculated, and the high number of first time home buyers. First, median price calculation. Median price measures changes in choices, more than it measures changes in market value. This is because to calculate median, you list all of the sales by price from low to high, then choose the sales price that is in the physical ‘middle’ of the list of prices. Median Oahu Real Estate price is not technically a mathematical calculation. Add to this the high number of first time home buyers who purchase at the lower end of the price spectrum. When taken together, we have a large number of Oahu buyers choosing to buy at the lower end of the price spectrum, so the “middle” number will tend to be a lower sales price. This would explain why condo prices appear to be falling….. First time home buyers disproportionately purchase condos.

We see Oahu single family home median prices drifting upward, and Oahu condo prices drifting downward.