Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - 1:02 PM HAST Wednesday
The median price of Oahu homes dropped in June to $639,000, off 4.4 percent from the May median.
The Honolulu Board of Realtors said Wednesday that the number of sales was also down from May, with 368 sales closed, slightly off the 374 sales in May.
The June price is still up 7.7 percent from a year ago when the median was $593,300. But the number of sales was off 16.4 percent from a year ago, when 440 sales closed.
Median condominium prices on Oahu rose 1.6 percent to $310,000 in June, up from $305,000 in May.
The price is 17.4 percent higher than the June 2005 median price of $264,000. The number of condominium sales dropped 8.8 percent to 641 from 703 last year.
"As the first half of this year comes to an end, our statistics show what we've been expecting -- fewer sales and higher prices," Harvey Shapiro, research economist for the Board of Realtors, said in a statement.
Oahu's housing market is stabilizing after the rainy weather earlier this year caused a slight decrease in sales activity, according to the report.
The Realtors' group said there are more than twice as many houses and condos on the market than a year ago, the highest level of inventory since 1999. There are currently 1,836 single-family homes and 2,582 condos on the market.
"As the market continues to normalize, home buyers and sellers are both going to benefit. Buyers will have more time to comparison shop, while sellers will see slightly higher prices for their properties," the Realtors said in a statement.
Total sales volume for the six months ending in June was $2.8 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent compared to the $2.7 billion generated in the same period last year.
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