Kona Kohala Blog

Here it is almost the end of January, the first month of 2009.  The markets in North Kona and South Kohala are both struggling against gooey conditions in the form of sales lethargy.

The number of Single Family Residences (SFR's) sold in January of '09 compared to January '08 in Norht Kona are down 80% with just 4 closing this year to date.  There have been 8 condos sold compared to 9 in '08 which is an 11.1% decline.  In South Kohala only 3 SFR's have closed, down 62.5% from '08 and just one condo compared to 10 last year, a reduction of 90%.

Median price is still not falling in line with expectations with the exception of condos in North Kona.  This segment is a slight over correction being down 54% at $194,000.  In this weeks newsletter we talked about the large numbers of condos in that price range in Kona.  SFR's in North Kona are down 16% in median price to $490K, nearing first time home buyer range.  Also, where second home and investment buyers will start to jump in.

In South Kohala, the median price of a SFR is $379K but remember that's based on just three sales so not really indicative of the actual market place there.  Condos jumped an amazing 49% in median price but unfortunately, this too must be discounted because only one condo sold this month meaning this is a usless statistic unless you're arguing the come back of the South Kohala condo market and you don't want to talk about the number of sales, just the price of condos.

The market place on the west coast, especially the Bay area and Southern California, are taking off with as much as a 43% increase in acitivity this year.  Until our prices correct a little more, in the downward direction, we will sit in the buyer doldrums we've been experiencing for the last couple years.

New foreclosures and bank desires to unload their real estate holdings will help lower prices but that's going to take time.  Sellers need to realize that until this market is reenergized, holding onto high prices will only freeze out potential activity in our market.  It's time to get prices down to where mortal humans can afford to buy and banks will be willing to lend.

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