Oahu Real Estate Sizzling

Oahu is cooking. And the most popular of the menu items are condos. Demand for these tasty items is up 71 percent from year ago March, when 235 fewer units were chomped down. Single family isn't chopped liver either: those sales are up 35 percent, or 85 more homes ingested. More remarkable is that this glutony comes at a time when the cost of eating homes is climbing higher and higher: Oahu condo prices are up 23 percent, with single family prices up 17 percent. These prices are enough to give you heartburn. The remedy? Super low and falling interest rates.

What's stirring the stew on Oahu is also causing neighbor island markets to bubble over, too. Big island resales are up a respectable 9 percent, even with price hikes of 37 percent for single family and 5 percent for condos. But Kauai takes the prize, bakes the cake (and eats it, too): total sales are up 77 percent, with prices sweeter by 54 percent for single family and 12 percent for condos. Only Maui isn't partying with the rest, making it look distinctly unfriendly: sales are down 7 percent (7 percent is also how much Maui's condo prices are down, and how much single family prices are up).

Seriously, all talk of cooking and eating aside, a good interest rate enviroment plus a healthy local economy has allowed the market to rise dramatically. The single family side of the market is in the latter stages of this uptick, while condos are a bit earlier in the cycle, hence most of the sales gains (but not the price appreciation) are in the condo market.

	Latest month	Previous month	Year previous	Percent change from a year ago
HAWAII BUSINESS REAL ESTATE INDEX
Index (1972 = 100)	257.7	247.0	221.6	+16.3%
Components:
Resales/number	891	702	571	+56.0%
Avg. resale price	$235,491	$237,124	$205,831	+14.4%
Avg. time on market/days	35	37	46	-23.9%
New home contracts	193	166	174	+10.9%
New residential permits/number	286	226	81	+251.9%
Avg Single-family rents/$month	$1,780	$1,788	$1,729	+2.9%
HAWAII BUSINESS SPECULATION INDEX
Index (1972 = 100)	102.7	113.3	117.1	-12.2%
Components:
Waikiki condo resales	101	95	66	+53.0%
Kihei condo resales	51	41	44	+15.9%
Kaanapali condo resales	11	10	16	-31.3%
Kona condo resales	45	45	36	+25.0%
Poipu condo resales	15	4	9	+66.7%
Total Hawaii Condo Resales	801	635	539	+48.6%
SALES INDICATORS
Oahu single-family and condo resales	891	702	571	+56.0%
Maui single-family and condo resales	193	180	208	-7.2%
Big Island single-family and condo resales	237	188	217	+9.2%
Kauai single-family and condo resales	94	60	53	+77.4%
State single-family and condo resales	1,415	1,130	1,049	+34.9%

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