Kauai condominium prices soar

The median price of a condominium on Kauai rose more than 30 percent last month despite a more than 30 percent drop in the number of sales, while prices and sales of single-family homes both posted declines.
The median price of a Kauai condo in August was $589,000, a 30.3 percent increase over the same month last year, when the median price was $452,000, according to figures released by Hawaii Information Service Wednesday.
Condo prices for the first eight months of the year are up as well. The median condo price through the end of August was $557,500, a 43.3 percent boost over the same period last year, when the median price was $389,000.
The price increases are based on considerably fewer sales. The 23 units sold in August were 30.3 percent fewer than the 33 units sold in August 2006. There were just 220 sales during the first eight months of the year, a 58.3 percent drop from the same period in 2006, when 528 units sold.
The median price of a single-family home on Kauai last month was $599,000, a 23 percent drop from August 2006, when the price was $780,000. However, for the first eight months of the year, the median price was down by just under 4 percent, to $655,000 from $680,000.
The 20 single-family homes sold in August were 44.4 percent fewer than the same month last year when 36 homes sold. Sales were down just 5.4 percent for the first eight months of the year, with 298 homes sold through August of this year, compared to 315 homes sold during the same period last year.