maui real estate

Maui May Sales Stats

The Realtors Association of Maui released May statistics last week and results seem to run right in line with our Maui Agent Bob McCollor was recently predicting.

The number of units sold in Maui for May 2010 made a strong jump from May of 2009.  However, as we mentioned before, the Hawaii market has seen a rise in foreclosures which means many of these homes being sold are at significantly reduced prices.

Typically in a recovery phase of any real estate market, the number of sales increases before the prices start to come up. That only makes sense since the low prices from bank owned foreclosures and aggressive, motivated sellers is what causes the resurgence is home buying.  In Maui’s case that added up to a 49% increase in the number of single family homes sold, with a 9% decrease in the median sales price.

What does this mean for Maui Buyers and Sellers?

If you’re a seller and you don’t really NEED to sell – now is not the time to be on the market. Unless you are willing and able to compete with the low price and high quality that is abundant in the market right now, you need to be realistic about your very low chances of selling.  On the flipside, properties priced and presented properly are looking at only about 132 days on the market.  That figure includes a high number of short sales whose extended negotiation and closing times make that days on market average look even longer than it is.

For buyers it means BUY NOW.  The inventory is abundant, high quality, and priced nice.  But as the amount of property sold continues to rise, eventually so will the interest rates and prices and we’ll be kicking ourselves saying, “Can you believe what we could have gotten that for 2 years ago?!”