Median price is not the way to measure the market. But I have the solution!

Nobody keeps this statistic, but in my opinion, the best way to measure the market is by keeping track of dollars per foot.

Dollars per square foot of house and per square foot of land. If we could go back and get the average dollars per foot of house and land in an area over the years, I'm sure we would have a better way to understand the direction of the market.

Right now the median price is $649,500, which is about the same as it was last year, but in some areas that money is buying you so much more house in the same areas, that it's impossible to understand how much the market has dropped without seeing the houses for that price. In other areas, that same price is buying you LESS than it was last year.

So is the market up or down? It's both! It's down in Ewa, Maili, Kapolei, and Mililani, while it's up in Hawaii Kai, Diamond Head, Aina Haina, and core Honolulu. And even that statement needs to be clarified further. It's only up if you have a really nice home that is ready to move in. The tear downs are down in price, but the really nice houses are up in price.

Bottom line - it's impossible for the median price of all of Oahu to tell us anything at all about the overall market! There is no overall market! There are pockets of markets in pockets of areas, with some rising, some falling.