The town of  Waimea / Kamuela on the Big Island is lagging behind in the state’s housing recovery.
Kamuela’s highest-priced home (MLS# 214955) is in esrow with a listed price of $ 1, 075,000
Most of the recent news about Hawaii’s housing market has consisted of encouraging reports of increasing prices and sales numbers, and lower inventory and days on the market. But as we all know, real estate is all about location, location, location. And, for now, Waimea is lagging. In year-to-date sales, the Kamuela real estate market is almost dead even with last years market with 22 sales recorded so far this year compared to 21 last year. This is in sharp contrast with the Big Island’s overall increase of 43% over year-to-date sales last year. Yes, the average sales price is down for the Big Island, but overall sales are way up.
May sales for the town of Kamuela were a very weak total of two homes for the entire area. Both sales were in the Puu Nani neighborhood on the green side of town, and both were in the low $300’s, with one at $302,500 and one at $330,000. Both of these homes had fairly long days on the market as well, with one at 130 days and one at 285 days.
So, what do future months look like for Waimea? Well, with 13 homes in escrow at this time, it would appear that the number of sales should improve in the next few months. But the average prices should still be fairly low given that many of these sales will continue to come from green side homes. In fact, of the 13 homes in escrow at this time, 7 are wet side homes and 5 of these are priced in the $200,000 range. The biggest neighborhood for dry side homes is the new construction for the Phase 3 of Luala’i, and these are priced from the high $300’s to the low $400’s.  The highest priced Kamuela real estate in escrow right now is a 1600 sf dry side home on 2.57 acres listed at $1,075,000 (MLS# 214955) that has been on the market for a very long 542 days. If it does close over $1,000,000, it will be the first sale this in Waimea to hit that mark.
So, what does this mean for you? Well, if you are a buyer, it means there is still a large inventory of homes in Waimea for you to choose from. And if you are a seller, you need to realize that sales are slow and that certain price ranges, such as the high $900,000’s or over, are going to be difficult.
For more information about homes in either dry side or green side Waimea (Kamuela), contact me.
Reno Real Estate
June 23, 2010
Pat,
Our market in Northern NV (Reno, Sparks, etc..) is similar:
“Most of the recent news about Hawaii’s housing market has consisted of encouraging reports of increasing prices and sales numbers, and lower inventory and days on the market.”
Our starter home market is incredibly busy! (MSI is at 3 months) but our higher end homes ($500,000) is taking a beating. Probably for the same reasons in your market–lack of jumbo loan funding.
I hope it gets better for the Hawaii market ; )
Reno Real Estate
June 23, 2010
Pat,
Our market in Northern NV (Reno, Sparks, etc..) is similar:
“Most of the recent news about Hawaii’s housing market has consisted of encouraging reports of increasing prices and sales numbers, and lower inventory and days on the market.”
Our starter home market is incredibly busy! (MSI is at 3 months) but our higher end homes ($500,000) is taking a beating. Probably for the same reasons in your market–lack of jumbo loan funding.
I hope it gets better for the Hawaii market ; )
Ann Dwan
September 6, 2010
Looking for a good value house on the dry side. Mini 3 bed, 2 bath near the town center preferably with view. The hill just outside the town (sorry -forgot name) is the preferred location
Ann Dwan
September 6, 2010
Looking for a good value house on the dry side. Mini 3 bed, 2 bath near the town center preferably with view. The hill just outside the town (sorry -forgot name) is the preferred location