As most real estate savvy individuals know, monthly statistics are compared to the same month in prior years, rather than simply compared to the month before. That’s because real estate fluctuates at certain times of the year. For example, when we look at June’s performance this year, we compare it to June of 2011. In this case, the improvement was distinct.
According to the Realtors Association of Maui, median home prices shot up by 34 percent from $429,000 in June of last year, to $575,500 in June this year. The increase in home sales was a more modest 6 percent, with 86 sales as opposed to 81 in the same month last year.
As for condos, prices rose 27 percent from from $294,500 in June of last year to $372,990 in June this year. The increase in condo sales was much more substantial than in home sales. There was an 18 percent gain from 102 units sold in June last year and 120 sold in June this year.
As you may know, this data reflects all of Maui county, which includes real estate on Maui, Molokai and Lanai. In case you’re wondering, they did not include the sale of 98 percent of Lanai to Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle Corp. You can imagine how skewed the results would have been. Industry growth isn’t about wild, unusual spikes. It’s about steady, consistent improvements. Those are the ones that help to indicate to us what we can likely expect tomorrow.
On that note, year-to-date trends are the most indicative of progress or lack thereof. In the case of Maui County, condo sales were up 3 percent for the first half of the year, and prices rose 8 percent to $350,000. Single-family home sales were up 1 percent in the first half of the year, with a 1 percent increase in price to $450,000. Looking at these statistics, you can see that June’s sale and price statistics were distinctly higher than average, compared to prior months of 2012. If future months perform as well as June, we’ll see a reliable sign of improvement in year-to-date statistics. Time will tell! For those who aren’t ready to jump in with a real estate purchase, there are always Maui time shares.
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