kauai real estate market: Island Markets are "Marching" forward - 04/01/09 03:35 PM
Spring is here and our market is definitely picking up. Hooray. There were 49 transactions that either went into escrow or went into escrow and sold in the month of March. That's a pickup in activity for kauai real estate. That is far more volume than we've seen in January or February. Buyers are sensing the good values to be had and are making their moves. Interest rates are still at historically very low levels. This week I heard rates of 4.75% on a 2nd homes (better rate than a pure investor rate), and 5.25 on a jumbo loan with 30% … (2 comments)

kauai real estate market: Second Home Sales Down as percentage of sales for the Year 2008 - 03/30/09 08:52 AM
Reuters reported today that according to the National Association of Realtors, Sales of vacation and investment homes in the United States slipped to 30% of all transactions of existing and new homes in 2008, the  said on Monday.
However, more than four out of 10 investment buyers and more than three in 10 vacation-home buyers paid cash for their properties, with large percentages indicating that portfolio diversification was a factor in their purchase decision, the NAR said in a report.
<!--endclickprintexclude--><!-- /REAP --> The market share of homes purchased for investment was 21% last year, unchanged from 2007, while another 9% … (2 comments)

kauai real estate market: Latest East Side Short Sales and Foreclosures - Kapaa and Wailua - 03/05/09 07:30 AM
As of this posting, there are 48 properties in the Kapaa-Wailua that are  in short sale or foreclosure. This list is compiled by RealtyTrac, the nation's leading source for foreclosures. This does not include the many sellers who are current in their mortgages but still must seek short sales. If you wish to have a list of the most recent short sale properties in our neck of the woods, drop me an email and I will forward the list to you immediately. You might also find it interesting to download the laws about Foreclosure in Hawaii to gain some insight as … (0 comments)

kauai real estate market: North Shore Picking up - well all right - 02/05/09 11:07 AM
As i mentioned in my previous post, January has shown an increase in the number of buyers, offers, and properties that went into escrow in the Kauai Real Estate market. Enclosed is a little chart showing the two properties on the North Shore, that is taxkey 4-5, for those of you familiar with our plat and parcel system of real estate. In Hawaii, the five or six digit number identifies the island, zone, section, plat and parcel of the property. If a property has been conodminiumized ( is that a real word), there will be a sixth digit as well. The … (0 comments)

kauai real estate market: Is Our Market Turning Around - 10/10/08 10:41 AM
Here in Hawaii our market tends to follow California. Whatever movement or trends happen there tend to flow here whether sooner or later. The pundits say it takes 12-18 months but I experience that it happens a lot sooner. Our CEO posted this article from Real Trends to share the good news as we get ready for the weekend of open houses and prospecting here on Kauai.
September home sales show market beginning to stabilize as sales are up 1.9% in September 2008 over August 2008; Pricing pressure remains but is easing in a number of regions, according to REAL Trends. Year-over-year … (2 comments)

kauai real estate market: My Broker LOVES Sales Charts - 09/24/08 07:59 PM
On our island, we are and have been, the company with the largest aggregate of business. The other major franchises, Prudential and RE/MAX, all have some presence on our small Garden Island BUT, they don't produce the numbers that we do. And that brings me to our broker. Ken Kubiak LOVES to produce sales charts. Here's a recent one based on sales this year viewable in the MLS through Sept. 16, 2008. Note how dominant our number one position is. It simply means that in a small market, we have the largest number of agents that represent the largest number of … (0 comments)

kauai real estate market: Bank of Hawaii economist peers into his crystal ball to see our real estate future - 08/04/08 03:36 AM
Paul Brewbaker has often been regarded as having a crystal ball when it comes to the future of real estate. So much so that when Paul stepped forward to address the quarterly meeting of the members of the Kauai Board of Realtors, he began by repeating the mantra of  “October 26, 2012”. Again, he repeated, “October 26, 2012”.It’s true that he was simply kidding. But, in this phase of the real estate cycle, everyone likes to have a crystal ball or an answer as to when the Kauai real estate market will turn around. Economists of course can be wrong 99% … (4 comments)

kauai real estate market: How's the Hawaii Market Doing These Days? - 11/27/07 05:36 PM
How's the Hawaii market anyway?
For those of you who are wondering or asking, "How is the real estate market over there in Hawaii?"an interesting article comes from the Pacific Business Journal on their web site today. According to the article,

Honolulu had the highest rate of home price appreciation in the nation over the past year, according to new data. Home prices rose 14.79 percent in the Honolulu market, according to the September 2007 LoanPerformance Home Price Index released Monday by First American LoanPerformance.

Home prices fell in 17 states tracked by the index, with the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario … (4 comments)

kauai real estate market: October Sales for the island of Kauai - 11/17/07 08:42 AM



Traditionally, the fall selling season, September through November, is a slower period in the Kauai neighbor island market. In the state of Hawaii, only Oahu (where Honolulu is) functions as more of an urban market. The neighbor islands, Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii (aka the Big Island), are more of the second home and resort markets. On the neighbor islands, the market generally picks up around Christmas as the vacationers and snowbirds arrrive, and January and February are typically robust months.

The island is divdided into five zones, and they are listed below. The resort area of Princeville … (0 comments)