LIHUE — The Kauai estate market continues to rebound, but with some sectors growing a little slower than others. Ron Margolis, a member of the Kauai Board of Realtors, said recent real estate market surveys project positive growth nationally, with
LIHUE — The Kauai estate market continues to rebound, but with some sectors growing a little slower than others.
Ron Margolis, a member of the Kauai Board of Realtors, said recent real estate market surveys project positive growth nationally, with home values expected to appreciate just under 4 percent for the next five years. The Kauai market appears to be slowing down, however, with constrained inventory in some areas.
“Kauai sales from April through June indicated a slowdown in the velocity (numbers of sales) of our housing market,” Margolis said. “As in many markets, the single family residential home segment has recovered the fastest and prices are at mid-2004 levels and approaching 2005 prices. But price acceleration has also slowed, except in small pockets of the market where inventory of homes is scarce.”
A single family home on the market from January through June 30 was averaging 80 days when priced under $500,000, he said. That went up to 116 days in the $500,000 to $1 million range, and 231 days on up to the $3 million price tag.
For condos, the average was 121 days for under $500,000, he said. It was 209 days on up to $1 million, and 375 days on up to $3 million.
LaMont and Carol Fisher of Texas recently bought a condo in Princeville.
“It was painless,” LaMont added. “We worked hard to stay on top of everything and everything went as planned.”
The blessing in disguise, he said, was that the condo they ended up with was better than the one they initially bid on.
As for value, Fisher said there may have been better times to buy, but said he is satisfied they have a good deal with no regrets.
“In the big picture, we know it is worth considerably more,” LaMont said.
The Fisher’s built their single-family home in Texas. It was a longer process but was comparable to buying the condo. They paid off the home last year and began looking at a second property and Hawaii was on top of the list. After four days on Maui, they came to Kauai — their favorite island.
“We knew going into this process that we would get more for our money on Kauai,” he said.
Catherine Bueno Pennell, account executive with the Kauai offices of Old Republic Title & Escrow of Hawaii, compiled a report on closings, median prices, and sales volume for January through June 30. The report on single-family homes, condominiums and land compares with the same six-month period in 2013.
Kauai closed 99 transactions in June, compared to 98 transactions in June 2013, showing only a 1 percent increase, Bueno Pennell said.
There were 236 single family home closings islandwide (+4.4 percent) through June. The median price islandwide was $535,000 (+6.5).
The median condominium price islandwide was $347,500 (+5.3). The median land price islandwide was $370,000 (+27.6).
The islandwide sales volume for single family homes in June was $194,246,765 (+23.5). The condominium sales volume was $72,692,656 (-1.5).
Debra Blachowiak, principal broker at Sleeping Giant Sotheby’s International Realty, said she is “cautiously optimistic” about the real estate market.
There is a lot of activity and prices are rising, she said. It has been slower since 2008, but the growth is a more realistic increase from a lack of inventory combined with low interest rates — rather than the artificial factors that influenced steep rises in the past.
When interest rates begin to rise at some point, the activity will slow down some, Blachowiak said. Off-island influences can affect the market more than what is happening right here, she added.
“Normally, we are about six months behind the Mainland in real estate trends,” Blachowiak said. “The lower end of the market will always be more active than the high end, simply because more people have the financial means to participate.”
