Inventory Down, Sales Prices Up on Maui

Posted by Mapuana Andrade on Friday, September 15th, 2017 at 2:35pm


Just like the rest of the nation, Maui is two years into a sweeping trend of dropping housing supply and soaring sales prices.

According to a recent report by the Maui Association of Realtors, inventory dropped 9.9 percent for single-family homes and 21.9 percent for condominiums in August. This comes as the median sales price is hovering around $700,000 for a single-family home.

Alex Cortez, Broker with Island Sotheby’s Realty Wailea, said this is a sign of a seller’s market, largely created by increasing demand for homes.

This Kapalua estate in Pineapple Hill recently came on the market. 

“Even though new listings are still up sufficiently year over year, it's not enough to keep up with the demand,” said Cortez.

Right now, it’s common in many communities for multiple buyers to make offers over the asking price. This comes as month's supply of inventory dropped 19.7 percent for single-family homes and almost 29.9 percent for condominium, according to the Maui Association of Realtors.

“There's a lot of pent up demand, which is then reflected in increasing prices” said Cortez. 

Condominiums available for vacation rental programs, like this Lahaina unit, are in particularly high demand, Cortez said. 

Cortez further explained that more hopeful homeowners are qualifying for loans now than in the years after the Great Recession. In part, that also makes for a more competitive pool of prospective purchasers. 

"We are seeing lenders being less stringent in their qualifying process than they were in years past, resulting in more prospective buyers qualifying for available loan products," Cortez said.

The trend on Maui comes as the entire nation is facing surging housing costs and dwindling inventory. At the moment, there are the same number of homes for sale as there were in 1994, yet the population in the U.S. has grown by 63 million people, according to a Zillow estimate.

For more information and/or context regarding the Maui real estate market and foreseeable trends, contact us today.

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