HILO — Residential home sales on Hawaii Island are continuing along an upward trend for the first half of 2016.
Statistics from January to July provided by the Hawaii Island Board of Realtors show a 16.10 percent increase in the number of sales over the same time period in 2015.
“For us, it’s progressively gotten better over the last three, four years,” said Realtor Hank Correa, whose office is in Hilo. The East Hawaii market has been “quite busy,” he said, but “when it gets good, it gets good all around.”
The Puna and North Kohala districts have seen the biggest increase in sales numbers, with Puna up 41.6 percent over last year and North Kohala up 56.52 percent.
“There was a time a year ago when nobody wanted to buy on the Makuu side of (Hawaiian Paradise Park), but now people don’t seem to remember the lava,” Correa said, referring to the flow that threatened Puna in 2014.
Puna has the largest number of housing units sold of any Big Island district, and the largest amount of new construction. So far, 514 homes have been sold in the area. In South Hilo, there have been 205 homes sold.
By contrast, in both Hamakua and Ka‘u, just seven homes have been sold.
There has also been an increase in the number of vacant lots sold in the Puna district.
“People like to buy new homes,” Correa said.
In other districts such as North Kohala, where median home prices are $775,000 (up from $615,000 last year), and South Kohala (median home price of $495,000), the market is driven by scarcity.
“You’re seeing, in Waimea, prices driven by lower inventory,” said Realtor Guy LaGuire. “Things tend to sell for a little bit more money.”
“It’s just a very desirable place to live,” said Realtor Julie Keller, who, like LaGuire, is based in Waimea. “Sellers are getting close to what they want for their homes.”
The area is made up of several “micro markets,” LaGuire said: For example, the dry side of Waimea is a different market than the wet side, and Waikoloa Village is different from either of those.
The steady upward track on the Big Island is consistent with national trends as well. Correa also sells homes in Las Vegas and Phoenix, and said the areas were also staying busy.
“The big concern is the thought of, ‘Where are we in the cycle?’” he said.
That’s difficult to predict, but people are likely to keep purchasing houses because interest rates remain low.
“Everyone’s been telling us for five years they’re (interest rates) going to go up, and they haven’t,” LaGuire said.
“Obviously, we never know,” Keller said.
Although four districts — North Hilo, Hamakua, South Kohala and South Kona — have seen drops in the number of homes sold over the past year, the median home price in each district has increased over 2015 numbers.
Home prices are highest in North Kohala and lowest in Ka‘u, where the median is $172,000.
And as with the number of sales in the district, prices have jumped in Puna. Last year, median home price was just $5,000 more than Ka‘u ($160,000), but it is now $190,500. This is still the second-lowest median islandwide.
“Everything we take, we’re selling,” Correa said.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.