Oahu real estate trending up
A federal report suggests O'ahu home prices may be in a rebound, joining other indicators that a housing market turnaround is strengthening.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday reported that O'ahu single-family home values in the fourth quarter of last year declined 5.8% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, smaller than the 3rd quarter decline of 6.5%. The Federal Housing Finance report is considered to be a good broad measure of the housing market because of how it calculates values, using sale and refinancing values of homes in one quarter compared with sale or refinancing value for the same properties a year earlier.
However, the federal report has a major downside in that it represents relatively few transactions because it focuses on repeat sales of the same homes, and is limited to homes bought with conforming mortgages purchased or backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which excludes a significant part of the market financed by subprime and jumbo loans.
The suggestion from the report that prices may have started to stabilize is reflected elsewhere in the Oahu real estate market. The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported that the median price of previously owned single-family homes sold in January rose 10.8% to $597,500 from $539,500 a year earlier.
Among 299 metropolitan areas nationally, Honolulu, or O'ahu, ranked 199th, meaning 100 other areas had greater home value declines. Only 38 markets had home value gains.
For an in-depth review of any Oahu neighborhood real estate sales, contact me or request my reports for Hawaii Kai communities.
Barbara Abe
808-226-2537
barbara@barbarashawaii.com