It's becoming more and more of a buyer's market here on Oahu. This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate and I'm here to report the sales stats of February of 2023 and if you want to stick around, I'll give you some pointers on how to navigate this market. If you are a buyer, or even for sellers to help get those properties under contract.
Single Family Home Stats
First off, we're going to dive into the single family home stats.We're once again seeing a trend we've noticed for well over 6 months in that sales volume or numbers of transactions are down from a year ago. To be specific, they are down over 28.2%. In February of last year, there were 241 single family home sales on Oahu and now this year, there's just 173.
We've also seen for the 2nd month in a row, the median sales price for homes dipped below $1 million. That's creating more opportunities for buyers. However, it's the largest year over year dip we've seen since back during the start of COVID. That median sales price now for a home on Oahu is $987,000. A year ago, in February of '22, it was $1,125,000. So, that's a 12.3% decrease in median sales price.
We're also seeing a bump up in Median Days on Market, which is another indicator of how long it is taking homes to sell. A year ago, it was taking just 13 Days to sell a house on Oahu. That is now up over 261% to 47 Days. Now, keep in mind the National Association of Realtors says that 60 Days on Market or less is still a seller's market, so we're not there yet to technically call it a "buyer's market", however we're trending that direction.
Condo Stats
As we jump into the condo stats, the condo market hasn't slowed quite as bad as the single family home market. That might have to do with affordability. Keep in mind, several years back condos were trailing homes and now it's taking them a little bit longer to correct. The number of transactions for condos were down as well. They were down 33.1%. A year ago, in February there were 486 condo sales on Oahu. This past month we only saw 325.
The median sales price is down just slightly, by 3.4%. That was going from $497,000 a year ago to $480,000 this year. We also saw an uptick in Median Days on Market, but not as severe as the single family homes. It was up 100%. That was going from 14 Days on Market to 28 Days on Market.
Tools to Help Get Your Property Sold
Now, to jump into that trend I talked about in the beginning, it's becoming more and more of a buyer's market. If you're a buyer in the market, there's way more to chose from. It is taking things a little bit longer to sell. For sellers, it's taking longer for reality to set in, however they also have to realize it's going to take things longer to sell.
One tool we've been seeing in some parts of the market is actually offering some seller credits to help buy down the interest rate of the buyer. So, that becomes a "win win" where the buyer can get into a property without a bidding war (hopefully). From the seller's standpoint, it's another tool to help them get their property sold.
Another tool we have to help get your property sold is something that only Harcourts can offer and that's our non-distressed auction platform.
If you want to check out HarcourtsAuctions.com you can find out more info. there as well. Thanks for tuning in for February's stats and we'll be up again later this month for the local market update. Mahalo!