Kona Kohala Blog

It's almost the end of the year, at least in real estate, not much gets done between now and the first week of January.  Most people are more concerned with family and friends during the holidays which is as it should be.

Year to date for sales in North Kona we up 13% going from 245 Single Family Residences (SFR's) in '08 to 278 in '09.  Condo sales dropped <13%> from 183 in '08 to 159 this year.  Median price is still declining with SFR's in North Kona going from $542K in '08 to $425K in '09.  Median price for condos has dropped from $335K to $250K.

In South Kohala, median price for SFR's is down from $476K to $370K.  Condo prices have gone down from $610K in '08 to $445K in '09.  We're still averaging drops of over 20% annually for SFR's and roughly 25% for condos.

Rumor has it there will be a short recovery period after the holidays when businesses restock putting businesses back to work until a smaller than normal inventory is reestablished.  The First Time Home Buyer's Tax Credit is still in effect until the end of April but winter is traditionally a very slow time for real estate sales.  Other than continued aid to banks and other financial institutions, government stimulus funds are out of sight and has taken the reported recovery with it.

If the health plan is passed as is anticipated, look for a few new taxes and surcharges showing up next year.  The rush to pass health care reform seems to be such a waste of time since nothing takes effect until at least 2014 except the taxes associated with the bill.  Maybe having one more republican that's against the bill now in the house can help slow the madness.

If our elected representatives would put the same energy they've put into health care into getting the economy back up and running there might actually be a recovery on the horizon.  Unfortunately, all that's out there right now is more government spending.  All a senator has to do is be a hold out to realize a few hundred million dollars for his or her pet projects back home.  When will people begin to realize that all this pork and stimulus is our tax money being redistributed by the congress in many cases, in the most wasteful of ways.