Housing market may be cooling amid record-high prices
Median price for single-family homes in Maui County still over $1.2M
High home prices and mortgage rates may be putting the brakes on a hot housing market as the median sales price for a single-family home in Maui County continues to hover above $1.2 million.
“After two years of record-setting activity, there are signs the housing market might be cooling,” according to a report from the Realtors Association of Maui released Friday.
“High home prices and a surge in mortgage interest rates are slowing buyer activity,” the report pointed out, with home sales declining “under the weight of soaring homeownership costs.”
The median price for a singlefamily home in Maui County was $1,212,500 in May, just below the record-setting price of $1,242,500 in April. Last month’s median price was a 19 percent increase over May 2021 when the local housing market breached the $1 million mark for the first time since the Realtors Association of Maui started keeping statistics in 1993.
Meanwhile, the median sales price for condominiums in Maui County dipped from $820,000 in April to $715,000 in May, a 16.7 percent increase over the May 2021 price of $612,500.
As in past months, listings, sales and inventory were down in May compared to the same time last year.
New listings declined 18.1 percent from 138 in May 2021 to 113 last month, while pending sales dipped 26.8 percent from 112 to 82, closed sales fell 19.7 percent from 122 to 98 and total inventory of homes for sale went down 9.7 percent from 236 to 213.
Condos saw even bigger declines, with new listings falling 29.9 percent from 194 to 136, pending sales tumbling 49.8 percent from 233 to 117, closed sales dropping 37.6 percent from 242 to 151 and inventory of homes for sale down 30.8 percent from 253 to 175.
“Economists predict sales will continue to soften in the near future, which may put downward pressure on home prices,” the report said.
Central Maui continued to be the most popular market for home sales. A total of 19 homes sold in Wailuku in May, with a median sales price of $945,000. Twelve homes sold in the Kula-Ulupalakua-Kanaio area with a median price of $1.6 million, while 10 homes sold in Kihei with a median price of $1.3 million, and another nine sold in Kahului with a median price of $995,000.
The resort area of Wailea-Makena unsurprisingly boasted the most expensive sales, as four homes sold with a median price of $15.5 million. The lowest median sales price was on Lanai, where one home sold for $768,000.
Condos were most popular in Kihei, where 45 units sold with a median sales price of $720,000, and in the Napili-Kahana-Honokowai area, where 37 units sold with a median sales price of $725,000. Another 16 condos sold in Kaanapali with a median price of $1.6 million,
while 15 sold in Wailuku with a median price of $525,000 and 11 sold in Wailea-Makena with a median price of $1.95 million, the highest among all regions.
The least expensive condos were in Kahului, where seven units were purchased with a median sales price of $175,000.
While Maui County is still experiencing low inventory, nationally, the dip in sales has helped maintain supply somewhat.
“The slowdown in sales has provided a much-needed lift to housing supply, with inventory up 10.8 percent from the previous month,” the National Association of Realtors reported for April, the latest month for which it has data available. Supply, however, is still down 10.4 percent compared to April 2021.