Hawaii Mortgage Activity Picks Up in Oahu

Sales of single-family homes and condominiums on the Oahu housing market hit a brisker pace last month, with the fewest average days on the market recorded this year.

Prices dipped slightly for houses, while condos broke last month’s record high, according to statistics released Thursday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

The median price for a condo on Oahu in July was $335,000, about a 2 percent increase over the same month last year, and just $1,000 more than June’s record median price of $334,000.

Board research economist Harvey Shapiro noted that condo prices have increased steadily since October, when the median was $310,000.

The median price of a single-family home dipped to $640,000 in July, down 3 percent from the July 2006 median price of $660,000, and more than 6 percent lower than last month’s record high of $685,000.

“Median prices declined a bit, but this is more related to where sales occurred geographically than any significant depreciation in values,” said Berton Hamamoto, president of the Honolulu Board of Realtors. “Fifty-five percent of single-family home sales this month were in the more affordable Leeward Oahu area, compared to 44 percent last month, which helps explain the variances we experience in median prices.”

Year-to-date median prices for the first seven months of the year were $645,000 for single-family homes and $325,000 for condos. Hawaii mortgage activity has picked up as a result.

The number of sales in July fell for both categories, the board said. There were 339 single-family homes sold last month, down more than 10 percent from July 2006 when 379 houses sold. The 457 condos sold in July were more than 8 percent fewer than the 498 units sold during the same month last year.

However, the average number of days on the market for single-family homes dropped to 37 days, the fastest pace for this year and about a week faster than this time last year.

The figure for condos fell to an average of 35 days, three days faster than a year ago.

Shapiro said the cost of financing a home has risen, with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan today costing about 6.25 percent, about a half-percentage-point higher than at the beginning of the year.

“This rise has a significant effect on our housing market since our mortgage balances are among the highest in the nation,” he said.