Hawaii real estate news

Oahu's median home prices took a big hit last month. The median price of a single family home declined to $550,000, from $649,500 in May 2008. That's a 15.3% drop islandwide. Median condo and townhome prices fell too. The May 2009 median sale price was $305,000 versus $337,000 in May 2008. Home Sales Volume on Oahu May 2009 had 225 single family home sales, down 10.7% from the 252 homes sold in May 2008. For condos and townhomes, there were 263 sales in March 2009 versus 382 in March 2008. Th... Read Full Post

A customer made an inquiry about buying property at Diamond Head and Kahala. He wants a property with sandy beach frontage. The property can be either vacant land or land with an older house, ready for a remodel. I drive along Diamond Head Road and Kahala Avenue nearly every day. There are numerous homes along the beach and several undeveloped land parcels too. It first seemed like an easy task to find a suitable beachfront property for this person. Not so! Apparently the beachfront propertie... Read Full Post

After two very slow months at the beginning of the year, March 2009 showed some signs of recovery for Hawaii's housing market. The median price of a single family home climbed back up to $600,000, from February's $555,000 median. Single family home prices were down from a year earlier, approximately 4.5% island-wide. Condo and townhome prices were down 7.4% in March 2009, versus a year earlier. Home Sales Volume on Oahu March 2009 had 188 single family home sales, up from 163 sold in February... Read Full Post

Many have wondered when and if Oahu's housing market would be hit the way mainland markets have been crushed. In the fourth quarter of 2008 Hawaii had a significant decline and some neighborhoods lost value. In January we saw many new prospective buyers enter the market, lured by weak sales and low interest rates. Some have made offers on properties and others are watching to see what happens with an eye on 30-year mortgage rates. Meanwhile, sales in January tanked. These closings probably re... Read Full Post

Last week I spent time looking at properties with a hui of motivated buyers. We looked at a variety of residential properties to determine what would best fit their intended use as a vacation retreat in Hawaii. Moana Vista is currently under construction at 1015 Kapiolani Boulevard. It's convenient location in town and elegant design caught the interest of these buyers. We stopped by the project and checked it out. Honolulu condo construction is winding down Honolulu residents witnessed a boo... Read Full Post

The last month of 2008 was surprisingly steady for homeowners on Oahu. Sales volume of homes and condos was way down from 2007. Oahu's median sales prices held steady though. It seems like prices throughout the U.S. have plunged, how can Hawaii's prices be holding steady? Part of the answer is- location, location, location. Affluent people are still buying homes, resulting in price stability and even price increases in certain neighborhoods! Yes, the number of properties sold has decreased si... Read Full Post

Most Oahu residents saw a decrease in their tax assessed values for 2009. Some homeowners here and there have higher assessments this year. A friend called me yesterday to talk about her assessment, which has been climbing year after year. This Kaneohe homeowner has been living in her home for years. Despite the overall decrease in assessed values on the windward side of Oahu, her assessment is up again, possibly higher than the actual market value of her home. We ran a comparative market ana... Read Full Post

Barack Obama is on his way home. He'll be arriving on Oahu shortly for a holiday stay in Kailua. The Obamas are renting several homes on one property, in the Beachside neighborhood. As the name implies, this is an area with homes on a sandy beach. Beachside in Kailua on a sunny day The property being rented by the Obamas has its backyard overlooking the Oneawa Channel. A beautiful white sand beach fronts the homes. The Kaimalino neighborhood is across the channel. Neighbors are excited about ... Read Full Post

Oahu's tax assessments for 2009 have arrived. And the news is... an overall increase in property values! The percentage decreases on the regional map below might appear shocking, however Oahu's overall value put into dollars is an increase from $190.7 billion in the prior year to $191.1 billion this year. That doesn't sound as bad. How does the increase in Oahu's land values tie in with some significant decreases reflected above? The answer is, a big portion of the most valuable property on t... Read Full Post

I picked up a customer at Honolulu Airport on Saturday and took them out to Makaha Valley Plantation. They had recently purchased a unit at the Plantation and this was their first time seeing it in person. We arrived at the Plantation and checked out their unit. They were very happy with the purchase and have a long term plan of living there. Taking a look around, we noticed something odd in the neighboring building. The top floor (of the three story building) was missing its walls in some sp... Read Full Post