Aloha! It's another Wednesday and today we're going to touch on another episode of We Need Inventory. Today, we're going to talk about La Pietra here in Diamond Head, adjacent to La Pietra School for Girls. There, we have 38 town homes at the base of Diamond Head. It's a beautiful gated community. There's been 3 trades that have taken place so far this year, but the last sale was in July at $2,900,000. We have not had a listing hit the market since. So, traditionally every year we have several that sell. Now, we're going on 5 and coming up on 6 months without a sale or listing at La Pietra.
No Inventory = Great Time to Sell
If you know anyone looking to sell their town home there at La Pietra, now could be a great time because inventory is tight and we need inventory. In particular, for a quality product near Diamond Head.
Aloha, We're here to talk about the local market update for October of 2023 and we're finally starting to see a leveling off or balance in home and condo sales.
Local Report on Homes
First off, we're going to start off with the single home sales and Downtown-Nuuanu saw the largest increase year over year from October of '22 to this past month. There, we saw 4 sales a year ago and we had 8 take place this past month (100% increase). In the 21 major neighborhoods on Oahu (tracked by the Honolulu Board of Realtors), only 10 were down regarding sales volume. That's a big change relative to what we've been seeing with the majority of the neighborhoods being down. So, only 10 of the 21 or half were down regarding the number of sales.
Regarding the median sales price for October, Aina Haina-Kuliouou saw the largest increase year over year, which is up 62% and that was going from $1,496,625 to $2,427,500. That significant gain of 62%, there's normally a story we see behind that when there's a jump like that because more trades were probably taking place in Hawaii Loa Ridge vs. say Aina Haina, Niu Valley and Kuliouou, where you can see homes trade in that $2 million range. However, normally when you see the median price north of $2 million, it's because we're seeing more sales volume taking place in Hawaii Loa Ridge.
Local Report on Condos
Waialae-Kahala saw the largest increase in sales year over year. It's up 100%, however that was only going from 1 sale a a year ago to 2 sales, but it was the largest percentage increase. Another promising thing here for our market is that although sales were down in 11 of the 21 neighborhoods, it's still roughly half. That's a big turnaround from earlier this year and last year, when we were seeing 80 and 90% of the neighborhoods being down. Now, it's just roughly half.
The largest condo appreciation was found between Kapahulu-Diamond Head. There, the median price was up 35% year over year, going from $825,000 to $1,115,000. To find out what's happening in your specific neighborhood, because they are all different, and they're constantly changing, feel free to reach out to our team here at Harcourts Island Real Estate. We can be reached at 808-777-4880.
In the meantime, have a Happy Thanksgiving. Mahalo!
Aloha! It's another Wednesday and today we're going to talk about another episode of We Need Inventory.
WANTED: Marco Polo Condos
Right now, we're going to talk about the Marco Polo off of Kapiolani Blvd. There, at the Marco Polo, there are 572 units in the building. There are only 4 for sale today. There's a lack of inventory at Marco Pollo. When you think back to the history and what we saw there with the fire several years back, things have come a long way with sprinklers and new plumbing in the building. A number of owners have opted in to some new branch line plumbing, which will prevent leaks and the building is on solid ground going forward.
With that said above, we have buyers out there and in particular, there's one we're working with that wants a '17 stack in the building. That is makai or ocean facing unit and there's none available right now. There's been 2 trades over the last year, but if you know of anyone that owns a '17 stack at Marco Polo or if you know someone that owns one in general, now could be a great time to sell because there's literally only 4 units, that's less than 1% of the inventory is available for sale there. So, we need inventory and give us a call @ 808-371-3509. Mahalo!
Alright, this month we have 2 different stories going on between the home and condo markets here on Oahu. This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to report on the home and condo stats for October of 2023. First, we're going to dive into the single family homes.
Single Family Home Stats
Here, we saw a 4.1% dip in transactions (year over year) going from 222 sales to 213 sales. However, a silver lining is we saw an increase in median sales price, which was up 4.6%. That was going from $1,050,000 to $1,100,000. So, you'll start to see as I go through these stats that things are a little bit better on the single family home front. Alright, next we're going to jump into median days on market and that was down just slightly for homes. So, it's taking homes a little bit quicker to sell, dropping 5.3% from 19 days to 18 days.
New listings on market were down 4.6%. So, once again, there's less inventory. Pending sales are down 5%. Less deals are happening and less on the market. Active inventory is actually down 4.6% from a year ago. So, there's a lot less homes to chose from. Total inventory in escrow is down 3.5%. There are less deals taking place, however there is a larger supply overall (not just this past month in October) with months of remaining inventory up 38.1% and that's going from 2.1 to 2.9 months.
Condo Stats
As we jump into the condos, there we saw a decrease in the number of transactions year over year. That was going from 435 sales a year ago to 399 sales. That's down 8.3% year over year. The median sales price is also down for condos. Not by much, but $520,000 last year to $515,000 this year. That's a 1% drop and unlike the single family homes we saw an increase in median days on market, going from 19 to 21, which is up 10.5%.
With inventory, we're seeing a 9.4% increase with condos on the market. New listings to market has increased by 6.4%. Pending sales are down 5%. Overall, months of remaining inventory is up 57.1% from a year ago. That's going from 2.1 to 3.3 months. That is not a reason to panic for homeowners because anything less than 6 months is still considered a sellers market according to the National Association of Realtors.
Recap
There's a dichotomy between the homes and condos as we started off with and every neighborhood is different. We're going to jump into the local neighborhood stats later in the month. Hope you're enjoying your early stages of November. Mahalo!
Charles Xavier here. I came here to Cerebro to reflect back on some properties that my friend Logan told me about. He's been coming to Hawaii for many years to check out a sophisticated real estate brokerage called Harcourts Island Real Estate. Since then, Captain America stopped through. All hell has broken loose since then. We had Spider Man go to town then Dr. Strange... the literally cracked the multi-verse. So, now there's so many variations of myself and other mutants, some of which has taken on the personalities of selling properties.
Mutants in Real Estate
We've got some in Beverly Hills, Orange County and San Diego County. We've also got one in New Zealand and another that runs auctions in New Zealand. These mutants are popping up all over the place in the multi-verse. However, I do want to talk about some properties I've seen through Cerebro.
Awesome Listings by Harcourts in Hawaii
We've got a number of awesome listings and I've seen the value in these properties in Hawaii. First off, there's an upcoming listing on the North Shore for $3.9 million. Then, we've got some cool properties on Maui. One is listed in Kula for $3,125,000. We've got another for $1,250,000 in Kihei. Then, we've got some cool auction listings. One is taking place in Makakilo and another in town in Dowsett Point. There's also a really cool condo in Waikiki for those mutants that really want to get out there to see. Last, but not least, we've got a beachfront property in Makaha on the west side of Oahu.
Happy Halloween from Harcourts
To recap, there's some really cool things that Harcourts Realtors are working on in Oahu and on Maui and for all those out there, we're wishing you a wonderful Halloween. Aloha!
Can you believe that home sales in Wahiawa were up 400% from a year ago? This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate here to report on the local market update for September of 2023.
Local Market Update for Homes
First off, we're going to talk about home sales on Oahu and there we saw Wahiawa showed the most strength with sales increasing from 2 sales a year ago to 10 sales this year. That's a 400% increase year over year. Two thirds of the neighborhoods on Oahu or 14 of the 21 major neighborhoods saw a decrease in sales. So, Wahiawa was definitely an outlier with a 400% increase in home sales.
The North Shore of Oahu saw the largest increase by far for median sales price. It was up 77% from a year ago. A year ago that median sales price was only $1,050,000 and this past month in September, we saw it at $1,857,500. So, the North continues to "buck all the trends" (no pun intended) as far as appreciation goes and sales go. Month after month this has been a trend ever since COVID and people want to get away and have some space and privacy. With that said, I've got an exciting new listing coming up next month on the North Shore.
It's over 2.5 acres on the North Shore near Turtle Bay in a gated community zoned Ag. We'll share more about it in the coming weeks, but I'm really excited about this upcoming listing. I think it's going to be a hot commodity, given something a fraction of the size across the street is under contract well into the mid $3 million range.
Local Market Update for Condos
Makaha-Nanakuli saw the largest increase in condo sales on Oahu. It was up 20% from a year ago. That was going from 15 sales in September of 2022 to 18 sales this past month. Meanwhile, there's a similar trend we saw in the single family homes in that the bulk of the neighborhoods (15 of the 21 major neighborhoods on Oahu) saw a decrease in sales transactions. So, to be up 20% was nice to see out there on the Leeward Coast.
Diamond Head-Kapahulu saw the largest increase in median condo price this past month and that was up 161% from a year ago. A year ago, the median sales price was $687,500 and now it's at $1,795,000. This is an outlier because not all of the neighborhoods were up that much. What most likely happened here year over year is we probably saw transactions taking place off Kapahulu and Pualei Circle, because in Pualei Circle you're looking at $500-600,000 for a 1 bedroom and the prices on the Gold Coast are going to be a lot more. So, that's why we saw that spike in price year over year. It's a different product, but in the same region.
I hope that helps and wishing you all a great Halloween! We'll talk soon. Aloha!
Do you feel like a betting person? Well, I bet if we were to take a straw poll across Oahu and ask people if it's a Buyer or Seller's market for real estate, I think 99% of people would say it's a Buyer's market right now. That's because everything you hear about in the news is that things are slow, homes aren't selling, there's a ton of inventory.
What Defines a Buyer's Market?
Well, one of the major stats that the National Association of Realtors looks at is months of remaining inventory. That basically says that if no new homes were to come to market, how long it would take all the existing inventory to sell. Anything more than 6 months of remaining inventory is considered a Buyer's market as far as the National Association of Realtors goes.
What's Months of Remaining Inventory Like on Oahu?
I've got some stats up here behind me that might debunk some of what's going on out there and actually confirm what some of you are believing. In general it is NOT a Buyer's market. It's still a Seller's market here on Oahu for the majority of the market.
If you look at the stat in the bottom left, it's 2.7 months, which is well under 6 months and that's similar to just about every category (of sales price range) with the exception of homes over $3 million. Furthermore, in the chart behind me here, everything is less than 6 months of remaining inventory in every single category of pricing here on Oahu. However, once you get above $3 million, it's 10.3 months. So, it's definitely a Buyer's market.
If you have a lot of cash (I know a lot of people out there don't), it's time to go shopping if you're in that luxury home market because there is a lot to chose from. Another thing I'd like to point out behind me is that orange number. That's going to be homes above $2 million and it kind of broke through that 6 month (of remaining inventory) mark midway through this year.
Id bet is if we had homes worth more than $3 million (on the orange chart), we would have cracked into that Buyer's Market earlier this year or even going back to last year. Because, we've been noticing some of those luxury home sales slowing down. They're still activity taking place on the luxury home front. There's no doubt about it.
Ready for Luxury Home Shopping?
If you're in that market north of $3 million and have some money to spend, there are some good deals out there. There's a lot more to chose from than in that $1-2 million range, so if you're a shopper in that market, give us a call @ 808-371-3509. If you're a seller in any market, give us a call. We'd love to help. Mahalo!
I can't believe we're into the 4th quarter already. We're starting off October and looking back on the September sales stats for 2023. This is David Buck with Harcourts Island Real Estate.
Single Family Home Stats
First off, we're going to continue on a trend we've talked about for months now where we're seeing a drop-off in sales volume and that was down 16.5%. A year ago, there were 278 single family home sales here on Oahu and this past month we saw just 232. Meanwhile, we saw a drop in median sales price as well, going from $1.1 million to $1,050,000. That's a 4.5% decrease. Then, median days on market are creeping up 11.1% and that was going from 18 days to 20 days.
This is compounded on the fact that from 2 years ago we saw a drop through last year. Overall, single family homes sales on the island are down 45%. So, stay tuned. It's not all doom and gloom. We're going to have a little bit of positive news on the condo front.
Condo Stats
I take that back. There's a little more bleak news regarding the condo market. There, we saw a 24.2% drop in the number of transactions. That was going from 496 condo sales a year ago to just 376 this year. That's the end of the bad news. The good news is that the median condo price on Oahu is up 6% and that was going from $502,500 to $532,500. So, there's a little bit of silver lining for sellers in the market right now.
The good news for sellers is there's a still a little amount of inventory in the big scheme of things. Similar to the single family home report, we're seeing this compound effect. So, year over year from 2 years ago, there's a 47% drop in the number of condo transactions. Because, a year ago we were down in the 30 some odd percentile off the top of my head. Then, it took an additional 24.% drop in deals this year.
Summary of Market
Deals are still happening out there. Interest rates are taking a toll on our market. However, the good news is there's a lot less competition if you're a buyer out there. From a seller's standpoint, there's not a lot of inventory. So, every market is different. If you have questions about your market, we're really excited we're launching a few new listings this week.
Harcourts Auctions and Our Team Growing
We're actually going to be re-introducing Harcourts Auctions to the marketplace here on Oahu. Last, but not least I wanted to share with you that we hired 2 new agents this past week. This first of which is Cynthia Scott:
Cynthia Scott, Realtor Associate
She was with Harcourts Prime in San Diego and loved the brand so much. She's been working the Las Vegas market the last few years with Douglas Elliman, but she's newly licensed here, living on the windward side. So, keep Cindy in mind. We also hired Michelle Belch over on Maui.
Michelle L. Belch, Realtor Associate
She lives on the west side of Maui, but she services the entire island. She just took a new listing to market yesterday in Kihei. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom legal vacation rental for $1,295,000.
Maui Vista #1410 for $1,295,000
So, feel free to reach out to Michelle if you've got questions about that. In the meantime, I'll be back later this month to talk about the local market report and enjoy this fall season. Aloha!
Aloha, I'm going to give a quick walking tour of some of the latest developments of Howard Hughes. We've got Anaha right behind me and Waiea, which were the first two towers.
Walking Tour of Ward Village
As we cross the street here on Auahi, you've got Waiea here, but you can see all (the new construction) that's happening in the zone right now. On the left coming up here you've got Victoria Place, which just got topped off about a week ago or so. They're finishing all the interiors and you can see all the people working on the windows there. All the construction workers... and across the street you've got Koula, which was completed this past year. There's a number of resale units on the market.
As we walk down the right, you've got all the retail here and Victoria Ward Cinemas. As you can see, it is a construction zone. There's lots of progress happening right now. You can see how Victoria Place buts right up against Waiea here. That's the amenity deck for Waiea up above there. What's exciting to see, what we're coming to right around the corner here is the great lawn, which is one of the amenities for living in this neighborhood. That's slowly coming to fruition as is ultimately a pedestrian bridge across Ala Moana Blvd.
As you can hear (in the video), there's lots of construction going on. Here, we can see the progress of Victoria Place, which is really coming together. We've talked about this in the past, however what's going to be really nice about this tower for the residents is it's literally the only one with no retail. It's very private and exclusive.
As you can see, there's a lot of construction happening down here. New towers going up with Ulana there and in the background we've got Ke Kilohana, which is one of the affordable products. What's behind this tar paper on the right is the great lawn. I referenced this in another video I took awhile back. You've got Aalii out the back and Aeo around the corner.
This is going to be one major park here and speaking of which, The Park is going to be right here. Then, you've got Kalae, which is going to be coming up on the corner here on the other side of the park. What they're doing here is some site work here because this is where the pedestrian bridge is going to be that's going to cross over Ala Moana Blvd.
Beyond Kalae, there's ultimately going to be a tower called Launiu, which I'm getting a presentation on today. After that, where the old Bank of Hawaii was, you have Alia by Kobayashi (not part of Ward Village). That's the extent of the Howard Hughes properties on the other side of Ward.
Howard Hughes also has the maintenance and contract to run the harbor at Kewalo Basin, which is right across the street. Victoria Ward Village is really coming into itself. You see the grass going in on the great lawn. Once again, you've got Koula here and that's a wrap...
Correction! That is not a wrap. I just got out of a presentation for Launiu. It's going to be really impressive. It's going to be on the corner of Ward Ave. and Ala Moana Blvd. It'll be a 40 story building. The podium is going to be on the 7th floor. There's not a lot of details I can share yet as it's very preliminary. They're going to launch sales in January, but if you have interest in another one of Howard Hughes new towers here in Ward Village or Launiu, feel free to give me a call. Mahalo!
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