Oahu’s housing market in June experienced a third straight month of exceptionally strong buyer demand that produced a record monthly median sale price for the fifth time this year.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported today that single-family homes sold last month for a median $979,000 that narrowly topped the prior record of $978,000 in May and represented a 27% gain over the $770,000 median sale price in June 2020.

Exceptional demand from buyers and relatively low inventory of homes listed for sale helped fuel recent price records.

There were 451 single-family home sales in June, up 49% from 302 in the same month last year when the market was depressed by a raging coronavirus pandemic.

The sale volume surge in June followed year-over-year gains of 63% in May and 51% in April after gains between 5% and 19% in the first three months of the year.

In Oahu’s condominium market, sale volume soared even more.

The number of condo sales jumped 134% to 730 last month from 312 a year earlier, which helped push up the median sale price by 9% to $460,000 over the year-earlier figure of $421,500.

Last month’s median condo price was the highest for any month since July 2019 when a record was set at $461,500.

Shannon Heaven, the trade association’s president and an agent with Property Profiles, said in a statement that some of the spike in condo purchases is from buyers who decided not to pursue a single-family home due to a severe lack of inventory and competitive bidding wars.

Some of the heightened buying also stems from people who put off purchases last year amid more economic and pandemic uncertainties.

Much of the recent demand for single-family homes has come from people who have had to work from home since last year because of COVID-19, including local residents and people moving from the mainland.

“We are in desperate need of more properties to house our local families, especially in the affordable to mid-range price points,” Heaven said.