Kona Kohala Blog

Our market, like our economy, has had some false starts then abrupt stops then little burps along the way but no real direction for some time.  Right now it seems that we're experiencing what may be our normal market for the time being.

After the "crash" of '06 we were on a pretty steady down hill spiral in market activity and median prices.  We watched helplessly as prices in North Kona and South Kohala as well as most of the rest of Hawaii island, dropped value at about 20% per year until last July.  At that time, something magic happened.  Buyer's finally made a move back into real estate in Hawaii.

I believe it was a combination of things; prices had finally reached a point where they were again attractive, people in general hit "frugality fatigue" and those with money felt the need to invest it, and foreclosures were in the news and on the market which psychologically means, good deals.

Once those things took place we saw sales activity suddenly begin to pick up.  Mostly it was the lower end of the price range that saw buyers coming back in to grab what they felt were under priced properties.  Both Single Family Residences (SFR's) and condos were suddenly selling with market price being set by short sales and foreclosures.

Prices continued to drop but the rate at which they were dropping was lessening.  We're still seeing some large annual declines in South Kohala condos but not much in their SFR's.  In North Kona the decline slowed to about 10% to 12% per year decline in median price.

Activity levels remain high and will as long as there are relatively speaking, low priced properties out there.  For more details, email me and I'll put you on the Aloha Friday newsletter list.  Here I go into more detail on what's happening not only in the real estate market but all things pertaining to real estate and other tid bits about west Hawaii.  You can sign up by emailing me at Robert@FerrariPacificRealty.com.  You will not receive any spam and your address is not shared or sold.  You can cancel any time you wish.