The ghosts and goblins of Halloween have come and gone, and the calendar shows November. That means it is time for the “unofficial October 2011 Maui Real Estate statistics.” If you are stumbling across our “unofficial stats” for the first time, this is an opportunity to get a sneak peak on how the Maui Real Estate market performed over the last month. We generally release the stats about a week prior to when the local Realtor association publishes their own figures. The “unofficial” stats include some additional data points on monthly sales, some context for the numbers and a few thoughts on the state of the market. After doing a little digging earlier in the day, these are the unofficial stats I came up with for October.
By my count, Maui Realtors have reported 73 home sales this October at a median price of $480,000. By comparison, there were 64 home sales reported in October of 2010 at a median price of $425,000. This years numbers show a 14% increase in volume and a 13% increase in median price over last October.
Thus far, there have been 75 condo sales reported at a median price of $310,000 for October of 2011. The October 2010 numbers were 72 sold at a median of $322,500. That translates to a 4% increase in volume and a 4% decrease in price.
The land market continues to be stagnant. There were only 7 sales reported for the month of October at a median price of $625,000. That was enough to just outpace last year’s October numbers of 6 sales at a median of $207,500.
One thing we do in the unofficial stats that they don’t do in the official stats is to keep track of bank owned (REO) and short sale transactions. While Maui hasn’t been as hard hit as some communities, REOs and shorts continue to have a significant impact on our market. There were a total of 39 REOs and 33 short sales that closed last month. Of the 73 homes sold, 37 were REOs or shorts. That is just under 51% of the total sales volume. For condos, 34 of the 75 properties sold were REOs or shorts. That constitutes 45% of the total number of condos sold.
There was one bank owned transaction among the seven land sales.
For a little context, I thought I might provide the overall REO and short sale closes for the year. There have been a total of 1843 home, condo and land sales on island through October 31. There have been 472 REO closes and 222 completed short sale transactions. That means roughly 38% of the transactions have been REOs or Shorts. For homes, 337 of the 743 total sales were REOs or Shorts. That is 45% of the total transactions. Of the 989 condo sales, 331 sales were REOs or short sales. That comes to 33% of the condo sales. That would suggest we saw a greater percentage of REO and short sale closes than usual.
Aside from the REO and Short sale activity, I can’t say that there were was much else about this month’s statistics that was out of the ordinary. The numbers follow closely with what we have seen for overall market trends during 2011. Sales volume is outpacing last year in all segments, but not by huge numbers. The bump in median home sales prices last month was the one other anomaly. That being said the change in median is likely a reflection of more high end sales than any measurable increase in home values. It is challenging to track the trajectory of values on Maui through our statistics. Smaller sample sizes mean that shifts in where market activity occurs can be just as big a driver of medians as changes in values.
Speaking of the high end market, we did see more luxury activity this October than we saw last October. There were seven home sales over $2,000,000 this month compared to only two sales in October of 2010. For luxury condos, I counted five sales over $1,500,000. This outpaced the October 2010 numbers of three sales. This too follows an overall trend for the year as 2011 has proven to be a better year for luxury home and condo sales than 2010.
For buyers and sellers of Maui Real Estate, market conditions remain similar to what he have seen for the rest of the year. Buyers are going to continue to find opportunities to purchase properties for prices significantly below the peak of the market. That being said, buyers may find inventory tight in some market segments. Lower priced homes and condos can be particularly competitive. Buyers may have to exercise patience to find the best values. When opportunities do come on the market, buyers would be advised to act quickly and put their best foot forward as the best deals often attract multiple offers. Sellers are going to continue to find tough competition from the REO and short sale market. Those that need to sell quickly are served well by paying close attention to recent comparable sales and pricing close to or in some cases below those sales. Contact the Maui Real Estate Team with questions on the statistics or for assistance buying or selling Maui Real Estate.
