Dr. Beach recently came up with his annual list of the top beaches in the United States and Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki took the #2 spot behind St. George Island State Park in Florida. Not a bad accolade considering all the beautiful beaches in Hawaii (and the mainland).
Real Estate Near Duke Kahanamoku Beach
Most of the prime real estate near Duke Kahanamoku beach is taken up by hotels such as the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hale Koa Hotel. However, if you're looking to own a piece of paradise near Duke Kahanamoku Beach, you might want to consider The Ilikai Apartment Building to the west or perhaps Trump Tower Waikiki or the Waikiki Shore to the east. They're all great condos in their own right. There's also a ton of other buildings if you're willing to walk a bit further.
Other Noteworthy Hawaii Beaches
In addition to Duke Kahanamoku Beach coming in at #2, Wailea Beach on Maui came in at #7 and Poipu Beach on Kauai came in at #9. If you're looking for something to own along one of Hawaii's beaches, feel free to contact us for more information.
Can you believe that Waialae-Kahala home prices were up 116% last month? This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to give you the local market update for April of 2023. We're going to jump into Waialae-Kahala in a second, but first we're going to start of with the single family home sales.
Local Update for Single Family Homes
Ala Moana-Kakaako had the largest increase in the number of sales. It was 100% increase, which was only going from 1 to 2 (sales), because most of the product in Ala Moana to Kakaako are actually condos and not houses. With that said, it was 100% increase since April of '22. There were 4 neighborhoods on Oahu that saw an uptick in the transaction volume for single family homes and there were 2 that were basically flat with no sale increase or decrease. The remaining 15 of the 21 neighborhoods we are tracking were actually down regarding the numbers of sales.
Now we're going to discuss Waialae to Kahala. As I mentioned earlier, Waialae to Kahala saw an increase in the median sales price of 116% in April of '23. The median sales price was $2,375,000 last year and this past month it jumped up to $5,125,000! The reason for such a large jump was that there was only 1 transaction that took place. That sale was on Royal Circle, which is closer to Black Point, on the border of Kahala and Black Point. Whereas, a year ago there were actually 9 sales in Waialae-Kahala. This past month, there was only 1. That was an 89% dip in the number of transactions. The number was a bit skewed (with only 1 sale), but nonetheless that's a huge increase in median sales price.
We also saw some big trades in Kahala and Diamond Head a few months back in that $14-15 million range. In the luxury market, there's still buyers out there for single family homes.
Local Update for Condos
The Windward Coast saw a 200% increase going from 1 sale to 3 sales, regarding condos. Mililani and Hawaii Kai were also up regarding the number of sales year over year. Those were kind of the 3 spotlights, but overall, the transaction volume is down, which is a trend we've been seeing now for over a year.
More than half of the neighborhoods on Oahu saw an increase in median sales price for a condo on Oahu. The North Shore saw the largest increase, which was up 57%. That was going from $505,000 to $795,000. We're seeing a lot of change in the market. Some neighborhoods are up, some down. To find out what's going on in your particular neighborhood, feel free to reach out and give us a shout. Mahalo!
Can you believe that home sales on Oahu dropped 43% from a year ago? It's to believe... This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to give you the monthly statistics for April of 2023.
Home Statistics
We started this off saying that home sales on Oahu have dropped 43%. If you look back in April of last year, we saw 365 single family home sales on Oahu. Now, we just had 208 this past month. In addition to that, we saw a dip in the median sales price, which was down 9.5%. In April of last year, we had a median sales price of $1,105,000 and now we're at $999,995 (just under $1 million bucks) for that median sales price of a house on Oahu.
The median Days on Market have also shot up from just 10 days (which was a crazy market a year ago) to 24 days, which is still considering a "seller's market". With that said, these last several years have been very challenging for buyers and now there's a lot more opportunities ini the marketplace for buyers. The active inventory is up 35.4%. A year ago, there were only 395 homes for sale on Oahu. Now, there's 535, so there's a lot more to choose from. If you're a buyer in the marketplace, we're in May, heading into summer and there's some opportunities out there. As the market is softening, there's not as many bidding wars. If you're a buyer, you're in a much better environment than a year ago because rates were already starting to get up there in April of last year.
Condo Statistics
Condo sales also took a dip on Oahu, which weren't down as much as the homes. But, they were down 37.5% from April of last year. Last year there were 672 condo sales on Oahu. Now, there's just 420. So, we're continuing to see of softening across the board. However, regarding the pricing on condos, if you recall last month we talked about the median condo price on Oahu hit a record high. Now, this month we're reporting we're down just 2% from a year ago. So, that's not as much a correction as there was in the single family home market, which was down almost 10%. The median sales price for aa condo on Oahu is now $500,000. Whereas, a year ago it was at $510,000.
We're also seeing an increase in median Days on Market, which was up 66.7%. That was going from 12 days to 20 days. Things are moving quite briskly if they're priced correctly. Another positive side we talked about for buyers as we talked about on the homes is that active inventory is up. It didn't increase as much on the condo side as single family homes, but we saw a 24.8% increase in active condo inventory. In April of last year, there were 917 condos for sale. Now, we have 1,144. These are resale by the way. They are not new construction such as new condo towers coming up in Honolulu. We can dive into that, but I'll put a link here if you want to dive into new condo opportunities are. When we go over these monthly stats, we're strictly talking about resales.
That's a recap for April. Stay tuned as in a week or two here we'll report on the local market update. Otherwise, I hope you're having a great May and wishing all those wonderful Mothers out there a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend. Mahalo!
Can you believe there was only 1 neighborhood on Oahu that saw an increase in home sales last month? And, only 2 neighborhoods on Oahu that saw an increase in condo sales? This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to give you the local market update for March of 2023.
Local Update for Homes on Oahu
Makiki-Moiliili was the only area on Oahu that saw an increase in sales year over year and that was up 17%, going from 12 sales in March of 2022 to 14 sales this past month. Meanwhile, sales were down in 17 of the 21 major neighborhoods that the Honolulu Board of Realtors tracks. In addition to that, 3 were unchanged. Like I said, there was only 1 that was up year over year. Stand by and we'll get into the median sales price.
Meanwhile, there were 4 neighborhoods on Oahu that saw an increase in median sales price. Aina Haina-Kuliouou saw a 79% increase in the median home price, which was up from $1,830,000 a year ago to $3,270,000. The reason there is there were 4 sales in March and 3 of those 4 sales took place on Hawaii Loa Ridge. Meanwhile, Aina Haina had the 4th sale and Niu Valley and Kuliouou didn't see any home sales this past month. So, that's why you saw a spike in the median sales price because Hawaii Loa Ridge (which is a gated, luxury community) took the cake with 3 out of 4 sales this past month. I anticipate more will happen in the surrounding neighborhoods as we wrap up spring and head into summer in a month or two. We'll probably see a little more transition take place in Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kuliouou. Stand by and we'll report on the condo stats.
Local Update for Condos on Oahu
Well, condo sales were down in 16 of the 21 neighborhoods that the Honolulu Board of Realtors tracks. Similar to the single family homes, there were 3 of those neighborhoods that saw zero change year over year. There were only 2 neighborhoods that saw an uptick in condo sales. Kalihi-Palama saw the largest increase, which was up 42% and that was going from 12 to 17 sales year over year. Hawaii Kai was the only other neighborhood that saw an increase and that was 26% year over year. Stand by as we have 1 last category to report on, which would be the median sales price increase for condos on Oahu.
The last category we're going to cover is the median sales price for condos on Oahu and Wahiawa saw the largest increase in median sales price for a condo on Oahu and that was going from $260,000 a year ago to $372,500. If you think that sounds low, you're correct in that the median condo price on Oahu actually hit a record in March. So, Wahiawa would be on that lower end of the spectrum. The median condo price on Oahu is now north of $500,000 and we reported on that earlier in the month. Regardless, Wahiawa did see a 43% increase in condo price.
Contact a Local Expert
As we talk about every month in these reports, every market is different. They're all local and different things are happening ini different places. To find out what's happening in your market, feel free to give us a call.
So it's been just over 10 years since I wrote a blog about the difference between Honolulu real estate and Beaver Creek. Back then, I was just learning how to ski. I just started learning how to ski when my kids started skiing and I'm a little bit better now (10 years later).
Our First Time Skiing in Beaver Creek, CO
What I want to do now is talk about the difference between Aspen real estate and Honolulu real estate. We covered the trip to Beaver Creek back then, but since that trip to Beaver Creek we've probably done dozens of trips here to Aspen, CO. We just love this place. The real estate prices here are just wild!
Aspen Condos Seen from Gondola
Aspen Condos
For instance, in the town behind me, you can have wood framed construction condos built in the 1970's, with no amenities and no covered parking and they're trading for several thousand dollars a square foot. You can't find anything under $2,000-3,000/sq. ft. in this town.
Honolulu Condos
Park Lane in Ala Moana, Built in 2017 and Waiea in Kakaako, Built in 2016
For that same equivalent back in Honolulu, you're able to get relatively new construction in a building like Park Lane or Waiea, where you have all these high end amenities and ocean views. So, that's kind of the contrast you get between these two towns.
What Makes Aspen Unique
As you can see behind me, there's just a finite supply of real estate. It's similar to Honolulu in that more people want to be here than are leaving. What's really wild is during COVID, there was an article that came out in the Wall St. Journal and Realtor.com that talked about how real estate in this town was exploding. Between March to September of 2020, there were 46 home sales north of $10 million here in Aspen. Meanwhile, during that same period on Oahu there were only 2 home sales north of $10 million. That really shows the difference.
On top of that, this (Aspen) is a town of only 6,000 full time residents. Whereas in Honolulu, we have roughly a million. So, there's a big contrast between the two markets. Both are beautiful in their own ways.
Can Oahu Condos Compete?
Back to these condos here in Aspen. They're trading for crazy multiples of several thousand $ a square foot (or more). The highest we saw on Oahu during COVID was actually north of $5,000/sq. ft., so we one (outlier) transaction that could compete with Aspen.
Waikiki Shore Penthouse #1200 Sold for $5,710,000 on August 5, 2021
That was a penthouse condo at the Waikiki Shore, which is the only oceanfront condo in Waikiki. It was 1,158 square feet and traded over $5,000,000. The reason for that is that building has been gobbled up by a lot of Japanese investors because they get an accelerated depreciation over 7 years. On top of that, it's one of the few legal vacation rental buildings in Waikiki with that square footage.
Trump Tower Waikiki and Ritz Carlton Waikiki are Legal Vacation Rental Condos
Others to keep in mind, that don't trade that high and aren't in as good a location (as Waikiki Shore) is Trump Tower Waikiki as well as Ritz Carlton. Both are beautiful buildings and beautiful brands. However, there's not much money left on the table in those 2 towers when you factor in the management fees. You can control your costs a bit more at Waikiki Shore and those owners can net a bit more, but at $5,000/square foot, it's going to take awhile to make your money back.
Red Mountain in a Class Alone
Red Mountain Seen from Aspen Gondola
What I'd like to talk about straight back behind us is Red Mountain. In Red Mountain, you have some crazy real estate prices, of which trade higher than oceanfront homes in Kahala. In the last couple of years, we've had a few trades (on Oahu) north of $20 million. There was one in Lanikai and Kahala has been notorious over the years (for higher prices). This year, we had one at $15 million. But on Red Mountain, that's what some people are paying just for the dirt on a lot. There was a trade that happened up there a summer or two ago. It was $70 million for a single family home. That's almost double the highest sales price for a house ever sold on Oahu.
Ajax Seen from Hike Near Red Mountain
So, just to get perspective, that's Red Mountain there. But, if you were to flip that (or huli in Hawaiian) the angle around and look back up at Ajax or Aspen Mountain, which we're on in this gondola, that's the view you're waking up to. It's southern facing. It's spring skiing right now. You can see the snow here on the mountain, but everything on Red Mountain is getting the sun throughout the day. So, it stays a bit warmer.
Honolulu Still a Bargain
To recap, similar to that blog I wrote 10 years ago, Honolulu real estate prices are a bargain. Especially when you compare them to here in Aspen. If you're looking to buy something in Honolulu, give me a call or if you're in the market here in Aspen and want to explore this exclusive community, I don't have my license here yet, but I'm in communication with a lot of great agents here on the ground. So, feel free to give us a call and reach out. I hope to see you on the ocean or on the snow.
Well, you might ask yourself why I'm wearing green today instead of the typical blue I'm always wearing in my presentations? It has nothing to do with Saint Patrick's Day, which happened last month. It has a little more to do with this sea of cash I've got in the backdrop behind me.
Cash Transactions for Homes on Oahu
What I wanted to do is take a deep dive into the cash transactions that are taking place on Oahu. With the increase in interest rates we've been seeing over the past year or so, I have this hypothesis that a lot more cash transactions must be taking place. That's definitely something I've been seeing a lot more on the higher end. So, I took a deep dive into what's been going on in this first quarter of 2023 for single family homes on Oahu.
During the 1st quarter, there were 631 home sales that took place and of those, 136 of them were cash transactions. Of those cash transactions that took place, roughly half of them took place in east Honolulu (Downtown to Hawaii Kai), If you want to take a guess as to which neighborhoods saw the most cash transactions, it was actually the Diamond Head Region of MLS and that basically encompasses Diamond Head and everything inland all the way down to Kuliouou. 36 of the 136 transactions took place in that region of our MLS. Keep in mind, there's 12 regions on Oahu.
All 3 of the east Honolulu regions saw the bulk of those cash transactions. Coming in runner up was the Metro (Metro Honolulu) Region. There we had 20 cash deals take place in the 1st quarter. Then, we had Hawaii Kai in 3rd place with 13 cash transactions for single family homes.
There's a lot of volume taking place on other parts of Oahu, but the lowest cash transactions took place in Makakilo, followed by Waipahu. Makakilo had 3, Waipahu had 4 and the Leeward Plain had 11 (which was surprising) and almost had as many as Ewa Beach, which had 12.
Was There More Cash Deals Than 1st Quarter of 2022?
What I also did was jump back a year to look at the 1st quarter of '22 because that's where we started to see the market really soften. I've been telling friends recently if I were to have a rear view mirror and try to guess where the market peaked, I would have said it would have been March of last year. Saint Patrick's Day, Luck of the Irish, Cash, whatever you want to call it...
If we go back a year, we had a lot more cash transactions taking place. There were 181 cash deals that took place last year compared to 136 (this year I'd mentioned earlier). Now, back to my hypothesis in if there were more cash deals, I was correct, but not significantly more because we're seeing an overall slowing down in volume with home sales on Oahu.
Of the 181 cash deals that took place, there were a lot more sales as well. There was 907 sales last year. That was just under 20%. 19.95% of those deals were cash transactions. In the 1st quarter of this year, there was just over 20% at 21.55%. So, we are seeing an uptick in cash transactions in the marketplace.
1 of 5 Homes Sales on Oahu was Cash
What was fascinating and what I wanted to share with you is it is roughly 1 of every 5 deals for single family homes on Oahu was a cash transaction and the bulk of those deals are taking place in east Oahu. Whereas, the Leeward side of the island, the North Shore, the Windward side, you're seeing a lot more deals that are being financed.
To find out what's going on in your neighborhood or if there's anything we can help out with, feel free to give us a call. Mahalo.
Something exciting is happening in the condo market here on Oahu. This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate, here to give you the market update for March of 2023. First off, we're going to start off with the single family homes and then please stick around. We'll get into that exciting news about the condos at the very end.
Single Family Home Report
On the single family home front, we saw a drop in the numbers of transactions again. This is a trend we've been seeing for many months now. That's down 26.5% regarding the numbers of deals taking place. In March of '22, we had 321 home sales on Oahu and this past month, we saw just 236.
The median sales price is also down for single family homes, which was down 5.8%. That was going from $1,150,000 a year ago to $1,083,750. It's not a drastic change, however it is a chink in the armor. Inventory is picking up for homes on Oahu. It's up over 50% - 50.3% to be precise. The median Days on Market, which is a stat we like to track is up 300%. That's going from 9 Days a year ago to 36 Days now. It's still a seller's market because anything under 60 days is a seller's market, but this is something we want to keep an eye on.
Condo Report
The exciting news I'm going to talk about is we hit a new record price the median sale of a condo on Oahu. That's up 4% from a year ago. A year ago, it was at $515,000 (a record then) and now we're at $536,000! With all the doom and gloom in the news, we hit a new record condo price on Oahu. However, transaction volume is down significantly at 33.9%. In March of '22, we had 672 condo sales on Oahu and just this past month we only 444.
Similar to the single family home market, the median Days on Market was up as well, going from 9 to 24 days. It is taking condos a little bit quicker to sell. Inventory for existing condo listings is pickup up and is up 25.4%. So, not a 50% increase like the homes, but there's a lot more competition out there. It is taking things longer to sell, but every market is different. We just sold a high end oceanfront (supposed to close next week) condo on the Gold Coast and we had multiple offers, all cash buyers. So, it's a real spotty market. You have some segments that are slowing and some that are booming. To find out what's happening in your neighborhood, feel free to reach out. Mahalo!
Can you believe at the North Shore of Oahu saw a 60% increase year over year for the numbers of sales? This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to report on the Local Market Update for February 2023.
Local Market Update for Homes
As I mentioned, the North Shore saw the largest increase year over year and that was going from five sales a year ago in February of 2022 to 8 sales this year. Makaha - Nanakuli was the only other neighborhood on Oahu that did see an increase and that was up 18%. Four neighborhoods on Oahu saw no change whatsoever in the numbers of sales and the remaining neighborhoods that the Honolulu Board of Realtors tracks were down year over year regarding the numbers of transactions compared to February of 2022. Stay tuned - We’re gonna jump into which neighborhood on Oahu saw the largest appreciation year over year.
The neighborhood that saw the largest increase in the median sales price year over year was a Makiki-Moiliili and that was up 266%. That is somewhat of an outlier because as there were only two transactions that took place last month and one of those was an $8.3 million sale of the old, the Contemporary Museum or us Spalding Estate up in Makiki Heights and that was originally listed for $15,000,000, almost double the price in 2019 until they came down to a price that supported the marketplace. Stay Tuned and we'll jump into the condo market next.
Local Market Update for Condos
Downtown-Nuuanu saw the largest increase in the condo sales year over year and that was going from 30 transactions in February of '22 to 40 transactions this year. That was a 33% increase in the numbers of deals taking place. Now, that was the only neighborhood that saw an increase in sales. Three neighborhoods on Oahu were flat with no change in the numbers of transactions and the remaining neighborhoods on Oahu were down with regarding sales year over year. That's a trend we talked about a little bit earlier in the single-family home front. Stay tuned and we'll be right back up with the last category to report, which is the increase in appreciation for condominiums on Oahu.
The last category I'd mentioned was the appreciation for condominiums on Oahu and the Windward Coast took the cake there with the largest appreciation year over year and that’s going from a median sales price of $220,000 a year ago to $475,000 just this past month in February. There were actually 6 other neighborhoods that saw an increase and that was a little bit promising for condos. Then, the remaining neighborhoods were down regarding median sales price.
Contact a Local Expert
s we talked about every month in these reports, every neighborhood is local (and different). To find out what’s going on in your neighborhood, give us a call to see what’s happening in your hood. Aloha!
In honor of Saint Patrick's Day in 2023, we've decided to scour the MLS to find lucky green colored homes for sale. As of this morning, there were 593 single family homes for sale on Oahu.
Some of the Lucky Green Homes for Sale on Oahu
Only 17 were actually green. Here's what is available for sale if you're looking for that lucky green home on Oahu:
1. Green Colored Home in Makaha (MLS # 202306109) listed for $399,000
2. Green Home in Maili (MLS # 202303293) listed for $500,000
3. Green Home in Maili (MLS # 202300064) listed for $595,000
4. Green Home in Makaha (MLS # 202302019) listed for $630,000
This past week, Kaanapali has been making headlines with several milestones for this resort community in West Maui.
Kaanapali Beach seen from The Royal Lahaina Hotel
Kaanapali Named Best Beach in United States
There was a recent article in Tripadvisor that ranked Kaanapali Beach as the #1 beach in the United States based upon the traveler's choice. The article also ranked Kaanapali Beach as the #10 beach in the world. There were several other Hawaii beaches that made the list such as Hanalei on Kauai ranking #4, Ho'okipa on Maui #5, Lanikai on Oahu #15, Poipu on Kauai #16, Napili on Maui #17, Kailua on Oahu #21 and Hapuna on the Big Island #24.
There is a reason why Kaanapali was Hawaii's first planned resort. The white sandy beaches are something developers had the foresight and vision to make this such a unique place to be. In addition to Kaanapali Beach being ranked #1 in the US, there was also an oceanfront home that fetched over $20 million this past week.
Kaanapali Home Sold Over $20 Million
20 Kai Ala Drive Sold for $20,750,000 on March 8th
This was definitely a trophy property, which was situated on just under an acre and was zoned hotel, which allowed for short term rental. Although a large price tag, the home grossed $1 million a year in rental income. Just north of Kaanapali Villas, this section of beach is where the old Kaanapali Airport used to be back in the day and typically isn't as crowded as the beach south of Black Rock.
Although Kaanapali resort has been around for decades, the appreciation for its beauty is timeless and continues to be appreciated from travelers from all over.
