It is the end of Labor Day weekend and the first day of September. This traditionally marks a shift in the real estate market on Maui. If winter is our peak season, summer is the second busiest time of year for real estate. Fall on the other hand, is our slowest time of year. We see our fewest number of visitors during the fall months and the real estate market tends to slow accordingly. I just wanted to give a few thoughts on the state of the Maui Real Estate market as we start our slow season.
The Maui market is like most of the mainland that we are seeing price adjustments throughout almost all segments of the market. That being said, our price decreases started later and have been less dramatic than many markets. We have also seen a lot fewer foreclosures than some of our feeder markets than California. Getting a good sense of price adjustments is challenging in Maui. The homes are pretty varied and the small sample size makes our average and median price changes fluctuate quite a bit.
I like to look at sales volume as an indicator of the health of our market. I will have a couple of posts looking at September sales volume on THE Maui Real Estate Blog this week. I will post the unofficial sales stats for September tomorrow or Wednesday. That will be followed by the official stats a little later in the week as the local Realtors Association posts its numbers.
One number that doesn't make it into the stats is the current pending sales. This has been an interesting number to track throughout much of the late spring and summer. Over much of that period of time, we saw our number of pending sales or properties under contract steadily declining. Plain simple that means for all of the deals that were closing, we weren't seeing an equal number of properties going under contract. That is a pretty healthy indication that our market was slowing. That being said, we appeared to reach some sort of stable point towards the end of July. After dipping down as low as 290 pending sales in the county. That number appeared to stabilize and then increase in to the low 300s.
I took that as something of a positive sign. While sales volume is down, it was not getting worse as the summer went on. If anything it appeared to be bumping up slightly. This is where the comments on seasonality of the market are worth noting. I imagine that our pending sales will start to decrease again as we get to the fall slow season. As properties put under contract during the busier summer season sell, there will likely be fewer properties going under contract.
What does this mean for buyers and sellers? For buyers, fall can be a good time. It is that much less competitive with fewer potential buyers on island. For sellers, this is a time when you really need to be sharp on your pricing. With fewer potential buyers out there, you want to stand out to those that are looking for properties. Those that need to sell or want to sell quickly, will need to price below recent comparable sales to help stand out. Contact me to discuss the Maui market in greater detail or for assistance with buying or selling property.
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