Big Island's Waimea (Kamuela) Is a Buyer's Market for Home Sales

This month, I’m going to start something new in my monthly analysis of Waimea real estate sales. In addition to my ongoing monthly recap of real estate sales in Waimea, I’m going to take a look at where the current inventory of available homes for sale is in relationship to the number of sales last year.

The real estate industry has a standard mark of a 6 month inventory being the dividing line between a buyer’s market and a seller’s market. A seller’s market is considered any market where the inventory for sale is less than a 6 months supply. A buyer’s market is more than a six month supply of inventory.

And, I’m going to break down the inventory of homes between the two sides of Waimea to see how much of a difference, if any, there is between the two parts of town.

This Puu Nani home is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home (MLS# 241833) offered at $299K in one of Waimea’s most active subdivisions for sales in 2010

To start with, total home sales in Waimea last year were 64 homes. Broken down into sides, 60% of the sales were to the green side, or 38 homes, and 40% were dry side with a total of 26 homes sold.

With a total of 78 homes on the market today, that means the current inventory is around a 14 month supply of homes on the market. Whenever there is an inventory of more than a year, that is a strong buyers market. In looking at the two sides of town, there are slight differences in inventory, but not too drastic—dry side is at 16 months and green side is sitting at 13 months.

I use this data and think it is useful for both sellers and buyers. Buyers will benefit from this information when putting in an offer on a home and sellers for pricing a home. A good way to follow a market is over time, so it will be fun to see how the inventory times change through the year.

I love the Big Island!