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Home January 2009 Oahu real estate statistics

January 2009 Oahu real estate statistics

As the mainland goes, sooner or later, we seem to follow.

From conversations with friends in the business over the past year, as talk would turn to our individual markets, the tales of woe I heard from them seemed to be unimaginable. Lately, they seem more and more similar.

Released: Monday, February 2, 2009

HONOLULU - The Honolulu Board of REALTORS® released resale figures today for the month of January. According to the analysis conducted by the Board, using data collected from its computerized Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system, the statistics are:

January 2009 Residential Resales Statistics for Oahu

Single Family Home Resales
Number of
Sales		 This Month
Compared To		 Median*
Sales Price		 This Month
Compared To
January 2009 122 $ 539,500
December 2008 $ 626,500 dn 13.9%
January 2008 228 dn 46.5% $ 600,000 dn 10.1%

Condominium Resales
Number of
Sales		 This Month
Compared To		 Median*
Sales Price		 This Month
Compared To
January 2009 159 $ 305,000
December 2008 $ 305,000 No Change
January 2008 324 dn 50.9% $ 324,000 dn 5.8%

Click here for the full January 2009 Honolulu Board of REALTORS report
*Median price means half the prices were above and half below the given price.

During January, sales of 122 single-family homes and 159 condominiums were reported through the Board's MLS, decreases of 46.5 percent for single-family homes and 50.9 percent for condominiums, compared to the same month last year. The median prices paid for island properties in the first month of 2009 were $539,500 and $305,000, respectively, decreases of 10.1 percent for single-family homes from the same time period in 2008 and 5.8 percent for condominiums. The total dollar sales volume generated in the housing market for the first month of this year was $145.6 million, a decrease of 57.9 percent, or $199.9 million, compared to the $345.5 million produced one year ago.

"The current economic conditions are causing buyers to take a ‘wait-and-see' attitude, as evidenced by the slow sales in Oahu's residential housing marketing during January," said Sandra "Sam" Bangerter, President of the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®. "We hope that the federal efforts to restore not only the housing markets, but the entire economy, will be successful."

"It appears that the housing market in Hawaii is now following the same pattern as on the Mainland, namely very slow sales and diminishing prices," added Harvey Shapiro, Research Economist at the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®. "Everything continues as normal, but smaller in scale, with a limited inventory and fewer new listings being added to the market. However, the increase in the number of properties that were put into pending status during January predicts that the market could be expanding in the coming months."

(This report reflects information about resales of existing properties only and does not include new home sales. All of the MLS information is compiled from sales reported during the cited months; this data is known only after closing of escrow. The time delay between the signing of a sales contract and the closing of escrow is usually between one and three months.)
SOURCE: Honolulu Board of REALTORS Research Department compiled by MLS Data

What we see is a dramatic slowing of the market both Island wide and in the market I specialize in, the Kapolei, Ko Olina, Makakilo and Ewa Beach areas. If one was looking for good news in all of this, the monthly monitor of "months of remaining inventory" which was 12 months for single family and 13.1 months for condos and townhouses fell to 9.8 months and 10.3 months respectively in January.

The Leeward Market is very similar to the Island wide numbers with YTD unit sales down by 51.9 % on single family homes and Condominium/Townhome unit sales down by 47.5 %. As to median prices, Leeward single family home prices were down by 5.2% and Leeward condo/townhouses were down by 10.7 % when compared to January 2008.

"May you live in interesting times" ... Indeed we do!

Posted Sunday Feb 08