Hawaii once again goes its own way. While the rest of the country toys with the idea of recovery we wait for the waves. New housing sales climb, we stop building and wait for the waves. Existing housing moves up and down, we continue down and wait for the waves. We seem to always be waiting on the waves or anything else that will pick us up and get things moving here again.
We're about to enter Round 2 of the Foreclosure battle. Round 1 was mostly the investors who got in late or just got in over their heads. Round 2 will be the people who live and work here. Being heavily reliant on tourism and many people choosing to stay home now, that industry is struggling to stay afloat. Hawaii remains the land of dreams but fewer people are able to realize that dream so we are seeing fewer and fewer second homes being built or bought.
Our market in North Kona on Hawaii's west coast has experienced a <29.4%> decline in the number of sales this September compared to last September and a drop in median price of <31.0%> for Single Family Residences (SFR's). Condos aren't faring much better with sales down <20.0%> and their median price down <17.2%>. In South Kohala, Hawaii's famed Gold Coast the number of SFR's sold compared to last year is down <26.7%> and median price is down <34.9%>. Condos there, the main stay of the vacation crowd are down in sales by just <9%> compared to last year but median price is down <26.8%>.
This is not a good time to be a seller but a great time to be a buyer. For more details on what's happening in West Hawaii real estate you can sign up for the Aloha Friday weekly (usually, you know those waves) newsletter. You can check out a sample or sign up by clicking here. We are seeing the bottom end starting to take off, homes under $500K and condos under $300K but the higher end, $800K to $2M is dead in the water. There hasn't been a better time to buy Hawaii than now. Aloha
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