The market for vacation homes at Hawaii resorts rebounded last year to its highest level of sales in nearly a decade, according to a recent report.
Local housing market researcher Ricky Cassiday said in the report that buyers purchased 1,546 residential properties at resorts in Hawaii last year. That was 16% higher than 1,333 sales the year before, and the highest number since 1,713 in 2007.
"The market is accelerating," Cassiday said in his report.
As for prices, they have been flat on average for the last three years, though Cassiday expects that to change next year partly because of strong economies on the mainland and other countries that supply many buyers of resort homes.
"Next year is probably the year that pricing builds atop the current trend," he said in the report.
Last year the average price for new or previously owned condominiums, single-family homes and residential lots was $1.3 million, unchanged from the two prior years. The record was nearly $1.6 million in 2008.
The priciest sale last year was $21.3 million for an oceanfront property at Makena Resort.
Single-family homes sold for $2.4 million on average while condos sold for an average $1 million. The average price for lots was $936,579. There were 351 single-family home sales last year, up 9% from 321 the year before. The number of condo sales surged 18% to 1,055 last year from 897 the year before. There also were 150 lot sales, a 30 percent increase from 115, in the same comparable period.
Cassiday's report said the increase in sales was driven by the resale segment of the market, which deals in previously owned homes. The report said developers didn't create many new projects, and they sold the smallest number of new homes in more than two decades. Developers sold 179 properties last year. Sales by developers have been around or under 250 for the past seven years.
By island, Kauai had the largest share of sales, which displaced Maui from the top spot it had held since at least 2010. There were 485 sales on Kauai, followed by 467 on Hawaii island, 445 on Maui and 149 on Oahu. In recent years resort home sales on Kauai typically trailed Maui and Hawaii island.
