BUSINESS BRIEFS
Quake-hit Isles get IRS break
Advertiser Staff
The Internal Revenue Service has relaxed a deadline for Hawai'i taxpayers affected by Sunday's earthquakes, giving people who had filed time extensions for filing their 2005 taxes until Monday to get the returns in.
The relief applies to people who got a six-month extension until Oct. 15. The IRS said taxpayers now have until Oct. 23.
HOME SALES OFF, BUT PRICES RISE
Sales of both existing single-family homes and condominiums in Honolulu declined in the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, although the median sales price for condos rose to a record $315,000.
The median price for a single-family home rose to $635,000 in the third quarter, up 3.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, but down 0.8 percent from the second quarter of this year.
The median condo price represented a 12.5 percent increase from the third quarter of 2005 and 3.3 percent rise from the second quarter of this year. The volume of single-family home sales fell to 1,089, an 18 percent decline from the same quarter a year earlier. Condo sales totaled 1,559, down 32 percent from the same period a year earlier.
AQUACULTURE SALES GROWING
Sales of locally grown aquaculture products continued their steady growth last year, led by a healthy increase in algae sales.
Overall aquaculture sales rose 1 percent to $28.4 million in 2005 from the previous year, with algae sales posting a 16 percent increase to $14.6 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Aquaculture sales have averaged about 5 percent annual growth over the past five years.
Algae, which constituted 51 percent of all aquaculture sales last year, is used in a variety of pharmaceutical and nutritional products. The bulk of the state's aquaculture production — 71 percent of the total — came from the Big Island.
