Kona Kohala Blog

The list of Foreclosure and Short Sale properties has been updated this morning for both North Kona and South Kohala.  The numbers in both districts are holding about the same for now.  The lenders are hesitant to dump too many Foreclosures on the market at one time in fear of driving prices even further down.

We are about to see the second wave of Foreclosed properties hit the streets and keeping the numbers of properties for sale down may not be that easy.  We have seen an upturn in the number of sales in both North Kona and South Kohala but the median price continues to decline at about a 20% rate compared to last years prices.

Most resort properties showed an increase in their bookings for October, their best month in quite a while.  November and December pre-bookings are down but there may be more last minute visitors if and when airlines cut their prices for last minute flyers.  Right now, the airlines are having such great success with all their amenity fees, bags, food, etc. that they are considering adding even more to the cost of a flight above and beyond the ticket price.

A combination of higher vacancies in the resort condos, high unemployment and more foreclosures coming on the market don't bode well for an extended real estate recovery here.  The sales we're seeing in both SFR and Condos are at the low end of the price spectrum.  Mid range and higher end homes and condos are not doing much at all. 

With the extension of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit we may see continued activity on the low end, at least until the extension expires.  Until we see a business recovery expect mid range homes and condos to sit where they are.

Rumor has it that hiring will begin sometime around the end of the first quarter of 2010.  Until people go back to work expect to see hotel and vacation rental condos stay empty, investors holding off on buying such properties and mid priced properties to go unclaimed.