October 2023 Oahu real estate market update: Interest rates went up quite a bit in just the last month, from 7.0 to 7.5%. This is slowing down the buyer activity but not really affecting prices because the inventory is still low. Most homeowners have a much lower interest rate and so they don't want to sell their property and deal with the higher interest rates of today's market. Most would be sellers are opting to use their property as a rental instead of selling it. There's not as many buyers out the shopping right now, but the smart ones are getting really good deals right now in terms of a lower purchase price and seller credits. They are opting for highly leveraged loans, ARMs, and getting lender credits back with negative points and making the interest rate even higher in hopes that it will go back down soon and then they can refinance into something more stable. It's much more easier to shop around now with the decreased competition than it is once the interest rates come back down.
As far as the sales stats go for last month, the median price for a single-family home was $1,050,000 down 4.5% and condominiums were $532,000 which is actually up 6%. The median days on market for both single-family homes and condominiums is about three weeks. Close sales are down 16.5% for single-family homes and down 24.2% for condos. New listings are down across-the-board and months. Supply of active inventory is up a bit at 2.7 for single-family homes and 3.0 for condominiums. It's still a strong sellers market as six months is the threshold for when it changes from a sellers market to a buyers market, something we haven't seen in Hawaii in the last 20 years. Are you interested in making a real estate move in the new future whether buying or selling property here in Hawaii? Let me know so I can help.
