If prompt and punctual blogging was my New Year’s resolution were my New Year’s resolution, I would have already failed. I am a little slow out of the gates this year. The good news is that the delay is due to a busy start to the year with clients. If you have already seen the December Maui Real Estate stats elsewhere, there is still reason to keep reading. We report on a few things that other outlets don’t, and we don’t treat fluctuations in median prices with breathless hyperbole. Without further ado, here are the December 2015 numbers.
December Maui Real Estate Sales Volumes and Median Prices
There were 93 homes sold on Maui in the last month of 2015 with a median sales price of $550,000. By comparison, there were 63 homes sold during the last month of 2014 with a median sales price of $565,000. That is almost a 48% increase in sales activity and a 3% decrease in median price.
There were 101 condos sold in December with a median price of $410,000. Last December there were 125 condos sold with a median price of $380,000. That is roughly a 20% drop in sales activity and an 8% increase in median prices.
There were 16 lots sold with a median price of $281,750 in December of 2015. In December of 2014, there were 12 lots sold with a median price of $650,000. That is a 33% increase in sales volume and a 57% drop in median price.
Notable Numbers from the December Maui Sales
While compiling median prices and sales volumes, I came across some other notable numbers from the December Maui Real Estate Sales activity.
- The highest priced home sale was for an oceanfront property on Front Street in Lahaina. The 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with 3,747 square feet of living space sold for $4,375,000.
- That was one of four home sales over $2,000,000 in December. The other three sales included another oceanfront home on Front Street and two closes in Kula.
- The highest priced condo transaction was for a three bedroom, three and a half bath unit at Montage Kapalua Bay. That 2,789 square foot condo sold for $4,625,000.
- That was one of eight total condo sales over $1,500,000. The other closes included one sale at the the Ritz Carlton Residences and two sales each at Wailea Point, Wailea Beach Villas and Puamana.
- the highest priced residential land transaction was $1,100,000 for 67 acres in lower Kula. There was also a commercial land transaction that closed in Kahului for $1,510,000.
- There were 18 REO or bank owned transactions that closed in December of 2015. That was up from 13 REO sales in December of 2014. There were only 2 short sale transactions in December compared to 4 last December.
December Maui Pending Real Estate Sales
December is usually a pretty quiet month for properties going under contract. Many buyers will put their home buying on hold while they negotiate the already hectic holidays. Maui tends to see a slight uptick at the end of the month when an island filled with holiday visitors means more potential buyers.
This December, we saw a little more home buying activity. I would surmise that there are two factors at play. Buyers trying to lock in rates at the beginning of the month before the fed rate increase, and buyers who kept their focus looking for new listings in an otherwise limited inventory.
This is another shorter than usual stats post. I want to save the analysis for some forthcoming 2015 overviews. Stay tuned for those posts in the next week. In the meantime, please contact The Maui Real Estate Team if you have any questions about the stats or buying and selling Maui Property. We would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you and learn more about your real estate needs for 2016.
