Oahu Real Estate Market Update – May 2020

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In what traditionally is a busy few months for the Hawaii real estate industry, last month Oahu saw double digit decreases in new listings and sales closed. According to figures just released from the Honolulu Board of Realtors, the Housing Market has begun to see a widespread impact across Oahu from COVID-19. President of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, Tricia Nekota, commented that “sellers and buyers are exceedingly cautious as they juggle their perceptions and the reality of economic security amid these uncertain times. Once consumers begin to feel some relief from the impacts of the pandemic, it’s likely we will see listing and buying activities slowly increase.”

Statistics confirm that we are seeing many homeowners refrain from putting their home on the market, with new listings were down 42% when compared to this time last year for both single family homes and condos. The luxury real estate market saw the steepest decline with 51.4% decline in single family homes and 58.1% decline in condos priced over $1,000,000.

Number of sales on Oahu took a significant decline last month with single family homes and condos. There were 248 single family homes that transferred ownership last month, a decrease of 22% from April 2019. The 343 condos that sold last month is a 28% decrease year over year. While number of sales trended downward, median sales price trended upward slightly. The median sales price last month for single family homes increased 5.5% to $809,000 when compared with April 2019. Condos increased 7.4% from $418,950 in April 2019 to $450,000 last month.

At the end of April, Governor Ige outlined a plan to reopen the economy and some business, real estate offices included, are now allowed to operate under new socially distant operations. As more businesses are allowed to reopen over this next month, more residents will return to work lowering the unemployment rate. We will closely be monitoring how this affects the pool of buyers who are able to resume their house hunting. We continue to work hard to help our buyers and sellers and are here to take a deep dive into any market or neighborhood you are interested in. We look forward to talking with you!