Hawaii Sailor

The Big Island real estate market is facing a number of challenges as the first half of the 2010 fiscal year draws to a close. According to a May 6, 2010 article from the Honolulu Star Bulletin, “Residential real estate sales and prices continued to drop on the Big Island in April; however, the market was mixed on Kauai, according to a report released yesterday by the Hawaii Information Service.” The piece by Allison Schaefers went on to say that “Only 90 single-family homes and 21 condominiums changed hands on the Big Island in April, resulting in a 22.4 percent drop in single-family home sales and a staggering 53.3 percent drop in condominium sales. More than half of single-family home buyers on the Big Island spent at least $240,000, a 37.6 percent drop from the year-prior median. The median price paid for a Big Island condominium fell 46.2 percent to $269,000.”

Perhaps the biggest trouble spot for Big Island homes for sale is the high foreclosure rate in the state and county. According to a May 13, 2010 article in the Honolulu Star Bulletin, “Oahu remained well below the national rate of foreclosures in April, but the Big Island and Maui markets took large hits. There were 1,474 Hawaii properties that received foreclosure notices last month, according to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace.” The article, which was written by Gene Park, continued to say that “Hawaii’s April foreclosures, which equated to one in every 348 households, added up to a higher rate than the national rate of foreclosures, which was one in every 387…But Maui and the Big Island saw a high rate, with one in every 187 and one in every 179 homes, respectively…’I think we’re just gonna see more inventory hitting every day,’ said Big island and Maui Realtor Howard Dinits…”

Some outside investors were also losing money in the Big Island real estate market, according to a May 19, 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal. The piece, composed by Shayndi Raice and Robbie Whelan, noted that “Surfers aren’t the only ones losing their shirts in Hawaii. Bank of Scotland PLC, a British bank that financed a boom-era, 1,500-acre luxury golf-course community in the Hawaiian city of Kailua-Kona, is suffering asteep loss on the stalled [Hokuli’a] project.”

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