Waikiki Shore has long been one of Honolulu’s most sought-after addresses, and a year after our last update, it’s clear nothing has changed—except maybe the prices.
A Standout Deal
Unit 418, a fully furnished 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo priced at $2.3M, is still on the market. This unit offers views toward the ocean and Fort DeRussy, plus a unique advantage: Waikiki Shore is the only oceanfront condominium in Waikiki with legal vacation rental status.
Market Highlights
In the past year, two prime "00" units (direct oceanfront) have sold for just under $6M and $6.1M respectively, setting price-per-square-foot records rivaling luxury markets nationwide. These sales were driven by overseas buyers, particularly from Japan, who benefit from accelerated depreciation tax advantages in Hawaii.
Current Listings & Price Range
Studios: starting at $880K
One-bedrooms: $1.35M to $1.5M
Two-bedrooms: including Unit 418 at $2.3M
Notably, none of these listings come with parking stalls—making them a high-value commodity. One stall recently sold for $250K, underscoring the premium attached to convenience here.
Why It Matters
For investors and second-home seekers, Waikiki Shore offers a rare combination of location, legal vacation rental income, and prestige. Whether you’re buying for lifestyle or returns, it remains one of Waikiki’s most compelling opportunities.
Contact
For more information on Waikiki Shore or other Honolulu properties, call 808-371-3509.
The Oahu real estate market is experiencing notable changes this July 2025, with fresh opportunities emerging for both buyers and sellers. David Buck of Harcourts Island Real Estate shares the latest market stats and insights.
Single-Family Homes: Cooling but Still a Seller’s Market
Sales of single-family homes fell 7.4% compared to July 2024, with 249 homes sold versus 269 a year ago. Median prices dipped 5.7%, from $1,140,000 to $1,075,000. Homes are taking longer to sell, with median days on market rising from 15 to 20.
Inventory grew 18% year-over-year, from 722 to 852 active listings. While this is a noticeable increase, it’s still low compared to historical levels — and at 3.7 months of remaining inventory, the market remains in seller’s territory.
Home Sales by Price Range
A major factor behind the price drop? Most sales are happening in the $800K–$1M range, with fewer high-end sales above $3 million.
Condos: Stable Sales, Buyer-Friendly Conditions
Condo sales held steady at 389 units sold, exactly matching last July’s total. However, median prices fell 3.7% to $490,000, and days on market jumped 66%, from 30 to 50 days.
Inventory increased 31.7%, creating more choices for buyers. At 6.8 months of remaining inventory, condos are firmly in buyer’s market territory. One factor influencing the slowdown: the ongoing effects of the 2024 condo insurance crisis, when over 300 buildings were found to be underinsured.
Condo Sales by Price Range
Interestingly, high-end condos saw more activity, with sales above $2 million more than doubling compared to last year.
Key Takeaway
Oahu’s market is evolving, with single-family homes cooling but still favoring sellers, and condos offering opportunities for buyers. Market dynamics vary by neighborhood, so local expertise is key.
For personalized advice, contact David Buck at 808-371-3509.
Is Hawaii really paradise if it’s prone to natural disasters?
It’s a question many potential residents ask, and in this in-depth article, we break down the six most important natural disasters that impact life in Hawaii — straight from the perspective of Oahu resident and real estate broker, David Buck.
With over 50 years on the islands, a degree in environmental analysis, and time spent as a Honolulu firefighter, David shares not only science-backed knowledge but real-world stories — like battling fires in Hawaii Kai or evacuating during tsunami alerts.
Here are the six key natural disasters covered:
1. Earthquakes: Yes, they happen — but they’re rare. David recalls feeling only a few in his lifetime. Still, they can impact property, especially on the Big Island.
2. Fires: From Lahaina’s devastating wildfires to suspicious land-clearing blazes in Oahu, wildfires are on the rise and often tied to wind and dry brush conditions.
3. Flooding: Floods caused by heavy rain or poor drainage can impact homes, especially on the windward side. David recalls major flooding events in 1988 and 2018 that caused property damage and city backlash.
4. Hurricanes: Hurricanes Eva (1982) and Iniki (1992) were game-changers. While Oahu often gets spared, one close call had locals on edge as computer models showed a direct hit on Honolulu.
5. Tsunamis: David has evacuated four times, and in 2012, looting during evacuation made him rethink leaving. Tsunamis are rare but unpredictable and can wrap around islands in unexpected ways.
6. Volcanoes: Oahu’s craters are extinct, but Big Island real estate sits in active lava zones. Surprisingly, some luxury homes still thrive in these high-risk areas.
A Word on Climate Change:
David questions media hype and reflects on how fear can drive insurance, regulation, and real estate decisions. While he believes in climate change, he critiques how it’s often misrepresented.
Final Thoughts: Natural disasters are part of life anywhere — but knowledge is power. Whether you're moving to Hawaii or already live here, knowing the risks helps you plan smarter, especially when it comes to buying or selling a home.
Looking for a home in Hawaii? Contact David Buck at 808-371-3509
Waikiki Banyan vs Waikiki Sunset: A Head-to-Head Condo Comparison
If you're eyeing a property in the heart of Waikiki, chances are you've come across two standout options: the Waikiki Banyan and the Waikiki Sunset. Both built around the same time—1977 and 1979—they share many similarities but offer unique features that might make one a better fit for your lifestyle or investment goals.
Originally Leasehold, Now Mostly Fee Simple Both properties were initially leasehold under the Queen Liliuokalani Trust. Today, the majority of units have converted to fee simple, making them more attractive to investors and homeowners.
Waikiki Banyan Highlights
Located at 201 Ohua Ave, just off Kuhio Ave
Two towers: Makai (ocean-facing) and Mauka (mountain-facing)
Convenience store on the 5th floor with essentials
6th-floor amenity deck with pool, BBQs, and turf area
Two-bedroom units available at the end of halls
Exclusive two-bedroom, two-bath penthouse option
Fitness center and party room
What Sets Them Apart? The Banyan is ideal for travelers looking for central location and amenities, with more units and artistic charm. The Sunset, while smaller, offers two-bedroom units and breathtaking Diamond Head views, making it a solid choice for more living area or higher-end vacation stays.
Final Thoughts Both condos offer solid value and convenient living in Waikiki, with included parking and Aston hotel services. Whether you're a buyer, investor, or just comparing vacation spots, your decision may come down to floorplans, views, or building vibe.
📞 Ready to explore ownership in Waikiki? Contact us at 808-371-3509.
If you're thinking about living in Ewa Beach or just curious about Hawaii’s suburban expansion, this full tour of the 34 MLS neighborhoods in Ewa by Gentry is a must-read. Real estate broker David Buck, who’s been watching this community grow since high school, walks us through the history, layout, and home styles of every corner of this master-planned community.
Highlights include:
Historic Origins: Development began in 1988 with Soda Creek, kicking off decades of thoughtful growth.
Modern Developments: The final chapter is Makamae, with homes built as recently as 2024.
Over a decade ago, real estate broker David Buck warned us about the dangers of using platforms like Realtor.com. In 2014, he called out misleading advertising, unclear property statuses, and lack of transparency in leasehold versus fee simple listings. Fast forward to 2025, and not only do those issues persist—they’ve multiplied.
1. Sellers May Net Less Money Realtor.com’s parent company, News Corp, operates an ad-driven model inspired by Australia’s realestate.com.au, where sellers bear heavy marketing costs. David shares an eye-opening example of an Australian homeowner paying $30,000 out-of-pocket to advertise a single property due to a lack of MLS. If Realtor.com's model becomes dominant, U.S. sellers could face similar challenges.
2. No Merit in Realtor Recommendations The platform connects users with Realtors based solely on ad spend, not credentials. That means you're more likely to speak with the highest bidder—not the most qualified agent. Worse yet, user data is sold to multiple Realtors, leading to a barrage of unwanted calls, emails, and texts.
3. Hawaii Loses Out Commissions generated through Realtor.com often flow out of the local economy. As much as 30–35% of the money leaves Hawaii and goes to publicly traded News Corp, instead of staying within the community. This undermines local businesses and hurts Hawaii’s real estate ecosystem.
Final Thoughts If you want local expertise, clear property listings, and honest guidance, skip the big-box platforms. Use local brokerages that care about your success—and your community’s well-being.
Well, it's been over 10 years since I did a blog article on why it's not good to use Zillow when you're looking for real estate here in Hawaii. My name is David Buck. I'm a full-time real estate broker. I've been practicing here since 2001 and born & raised in Hawaii. What Zillow doesn't know is what's actually going on on the ground.
Recap: Reasons Not to Use Zillow in 2014
Back then, we covered the three reasons why not to use Zillow, Realtor.com and Trulia. I'm going to do another segment later on why not to use Realtor.com. Since then, Zillow has bought Trulia and they're basically one and the same. But for purposes of this today we're going to talk about three additional reasons why not to use Zillow when searching for real estate here in Hawaii. If you want to stick around to the very end, I'm going to have some great recommendations for you on what to do going forward and why not to continue to use Zillow.
Okay first I'd like to recap the original three reasons I wrote about why not to use Zillow. The first of which is Zillow and Realtor.com and Trulia at the time were set up for advertising purposes. Zillow has gotten a lot better at that. Their business model has other revenue streams that I'm going to get into in a little bit.
The second reason why is you cannot filter between fee simple and leasehold ownership and to this day you still cannot do that on Zillow which is a huge failure on their behalf in my opinion because I get calls all the time from people that see something on Zillow and normally when it looks too good to be true it's because it's leasehold where you don't know the land interest underneath the building where it lies on. Some examples are down here on the Gold Coast here at Diamond Head or there's a bunch of them in Waikiki. However, yeah if you see something that looks too good to be true on Zillow you can't filter out all that leasehold stuff that you don't want to see. If you want to be able to do that you definitely want to use a local real estate broker. That's a little spoiler alert here.
The third reason why you didn't want to use Zillow back then was because you couldn't tell the difference between if something had an accepted offer on it or not. Now they have gotten a lot better with that. Yeah so in fairness to Zillow you can actually tell now the difference between whether or not something has an accepted offer on it. Forever I get calls from people saying hey I see this property but they didn't realize that they had an accepted offer. Zillow is now getting a direct feed from the Honolulu Board of Realtors so you can tell when it says active in theory. It should be available but not always guaranteed but if it says active under contract that means that they do have an accepted offer on it.
3 More Reasons Not to Use Zillow in Hawaii
Now, let's dive into the three additional reasons why you don't want to be using Zillow for your real estate search here in Hawaii.
1. Valuation
The first off is the obvious one which most people around the United States already know about is valuation. So first off I want to tell you about a first-hand story on our own property where Zillow basically sent us worth a million or two million more than it was worth. What Zillow failed to notice was although this is a beautiful view on the same street right around the corner you can have a view more like this that buyers are willing to pay one to two million dollars for. Something that Zillow won't know by being boots on the ground here in Hawaii.
I've been practicing real estate here for 24 years and I have never overvalued something by a million or two million dollars or undervalued it by a million or two million dollars. That is way off the mark. To further compound on this hypothesis that Zillow has no clue what they're doing when it comes to valuation their CEO Spencer Radcliffe years back sold this home for like 40% less than what his estimate was worth and that made all the headlines and all the news and he was the first to come forward and said that your best to use a local real estate broker to find out what the value of your property is.
Next off during COVID I'm not sure if you remember but Zillow started getting into the eye buying business model where they're buying houses to flip quote unquote. I knew this is a bad idea going to it at a family member that invested in Zillow because of you know they're huge on the stock exchange. Once again they have no clue how to value a property so they end up taking a bath of nearly a billion dollars with their Zillow offers program. In one quarter alone they lost 300 million dollars in overpaying for property so they you know after bleeding through a billion dollars they shortly thereafter harpoon that program and they're no longer getting into the business of buying homes.
2. No Merit on Realtor Experience
Now, the second reason you don't want to use Zillow when searching for real estate here in Hawaii is for most people it's the most valuable asset that they're going to be buying or selling. There's really no merit as to who you get paired with so what happens for many many years once they got out of advertising Zillow started basically (I fell prey to this victimhood, I no longer give them money) it's just a matter of who spends the most amount of money with Zillow is the person that they'll hand off to on the other end of the line. That's what started happening and on top of that they're selling that to multiple realtors all over Oahu so like say if you're a consumer you went to Zillow like I have got interest in that property and you click I want more information you're at one point getting bombarded by three or four different realtors it's probably driving you crazy and to compound that there was no sense of merit to that it's basically whoever spent the most amount of money I know some people first hand they're spending 10, 20 or 30 thousand dollars a month. There's agents with no experience in selling real estate. I would think if your investing your money in your biggest asset, you would want someone with experience that really knows what they're doing. Like I said, I've been in the business 24 years and I don't think you want to just click on and work with a Realtor who has the biggest advertising budget versus someone that actually knows what the heck they're doing.
3. Zillow is the Antithesis of "Buying Local"
Okay, now the third reason you don't want to be using Zillow today is Zillow is literally the antithesis of buying local and the reason I say that is Zillow rolled out a program several years back called their flex program. Basically, what they're starting to do now (which everyone in the real estate community had a sixth sense that they were going to be doing years back) is they're entering the real estate game. So, with this Zillow flex program they're parting with a real estate broker and what they're doing is they're charging anywhere between 30 to 50 percent of a commission goes back to Zillow so what does that mean that means just like number two there's no guarantee on who you're going to get and how experienced they are and if they're skilled at their job. Then, up to half of that money is going to go to Wall Street so it's going to go to Zillow.
To compound that us as brokers, we have to take out errors and admissions insurance in case something ever goes wrong in a transaction. Ie -in case we get sued. Zillow has no liability in this game so they're taking half of the money outside of the state of Hawaii and it's going to pad the pockets of Wall Street. It's not going to go back into the community here in Hawaii. That's going to be the third reason why you don't want to be using Zillow today.
To summarize things in the current environment - who are the winners and who are the losers? Well, the winners are going to be Wall Street and Zillow and the losers are going to be local real estate brokers here in Hawaii that aren't giving half of their money away to Zillow and the consumer like I said at the end of the day, the consumer loses because they are not getting the best broker to be paired with number one and number two money is getting shipped outside of Hawaii and not getting invested back in the community.
The Solution
Now, to cover that final solution that I talked about in the beginning (you may have connected the dots and figured out by now), but rather than starting your real estate search with Zillow you want to pair with a good real estate broker that's licensed and experienced here in Hawaii. Not just the first person that shows up and that pays Zillow the most amount in advertising or is willing to compromise their morals and give half of their hard earned money to Wall Street into Zillow.
I do recommend working with a local real estate broker and if you want to work with me, I'd be honored. Our local website HawaiiHomeListings.com has the ability to filter out all that leasehold stuff so you're not looking at stuff that looks too good to be true. You'll know what the actual status is of a listing and you're going to get good data. Even though Zillow has a direct feed from the board of realtors, here's a first-hand experience I experienced yesterday:
I have a client looking in Waipio Gentry, I type that in the search bar on Zillow and guess what comes up? I get a property in Upcountry Maui? I'm not looking for Upcountry Maui. I'm looking here on Oahu but Zillow doesn't know that. It's best to partner with a broker here that knows what the heck they're doing. Then, on my website we've got every neighborhood broken down by the Honolulu Board of Realtors and every condo complex on the island. If you want additional information or how to set those searches feel free to reach out and give me a call at 808-371-3509. Mahalo and have a great day.
Trump Tower Waikiki: The Surprising Buyer’s Market in Luxury Real Estate
The iconic Trump Tower Waikiki, now rebranded as Kala’i, has quietly become one of Hawaii’s most compelling real estate opportunities — for buyers, that is.
As of mid-2025, the building features 31 active listings, but only 2 condos are selling per month. That translates to 15+ months of inventory, far exceeding the buyer’s market threshold defined by the National Association of Realtors.
What’s more shocking? 18 out of the 31 listings are underwater based on their original sales prices from 2009–2011. Some sellers are facing losses of up to $1.8 million.
Why Are Prices So Low?
The property was largely sold to Japanese investors in pre-sales.
A strong dollar and weak yen have triggered international sell-offs.
Restrictions on Airbnb and short-term rental management limit cash flow potential.
Many units are due for renovations — now underway via hotel program upgrades.
Despite these challenges, the upside is clear. This property offers a luxury second-home lifestyle, with proximity to Waikiki Beach, high-end shopping, and top-tier amenities — at prices you couldn’t find even 15 years ago.
What Sellers Can Do: If you’re a seller, consider alternative strategies like a non-distressed auction platform to beat the 300+ day average time on market. It’s a fresh approach that’s working where traditional listings fail.
Conclusion: If you're eyeing a rare opportunity in the Hawaii luxury condo market, Trump Tower Waikiki might be the ultimate contrarian buy.
In the heart of Ewa Beach, the final phase of Hoakalei's master-planned community introduces Kekainani — a collection of high-end homes with show-stopping ocean views and elegant interiors. This new development within Hoakalei Kuapapa is more than just a neighborhood... it's a lifestyle.
Three Stunning Floor Plans Kekainani offers three distinct layouts to fit different lifestyles:
Naupaka: A five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath masterpiece featuring 4,159 sq ft of living space. With two covered lanais, a gourmet kitchen, and expansive ocean views — including a peek at Diamond Head — this model screams grandeur.
Pohinahina: This spacious five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath home balances luxury with functionality. Featuring a covered courtyard lanai, dual desks for remote work, and a primary suite with oceanfront soaking tub views, it's perfect for families.
Ilima: The only single-level option, Ilima offers three bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths. High ceilings, water-facing primary suite, and an elegant mudroom make it ideal for those looking for comfort without stairs.
What Makes Kekainani Unique?
Unobstructed ocean views
2,436 - 4,000 sq ft of interior space
Luxurious finishes and customizable upgrades
Ideal location for surf lovers and sunset watchers
Is Kekainani Right for You?
Whether you’re upgrading your primary residence or investing in a premium vacation home, Kekainani delivers high-end living in one of Oahu’s most desirable locations. Contact us for more information on Kekainani or other new homes on Oahu.
The June 2025 local market update for Oahu is here, and it’s full of surprises.
Local Neighborhood Update for Homes
According to David Buck of Harcourts Island Real Estate, Kalihi to Palama saw an incredible 300% spike in single-family home sales — going from just 4 to 16 in one year. While that sounds extreme, it highlights how quickly demand can shift in localized markets.
Meanwhile, the North Shore reported the biggest jump in home prices, with median values climbing a massive 69% year-over-year, up from $1.25M to over $2.1M.
Local Neighborhood Update for Condos
The condo market painted a different picture. Despite a headline-grabbing 100% increase in Oahu condo sales, the number tells a modest story — from just 1 to 2 units sold in a neighborhood. More broadly, 15 of the 21 neighborhoods actually experienced a decline in condo sales.
Even condo pricing isn’t consistent. Wahiawa stood out, showing the highest condo price appreciation — a 34% rise from $228K to $305K.
As David emphasizes every month: real estate in Oahu is deeply local. Whether it’s townhouses, condos, or single-family homes, trends differ block by block.
To understand how your neighborhood fits into the larger picture, don’t rely solely on headlines — reach out for a custom analysis.
