Lynda Gill’s Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii Real Estate at Pacific Ocean Properties

 Kauai Real Estate Update

I just listed a gorgeous vacant lot right here in the neighborhood where I live.  The Kiahuna Golf Course Village is a fabulous community here in Poipu, close to everything but far away from it all.  This 10,819 square foot lot is located on the 8th and 15th tee box and has beautiful views and a great interior track location.  Being offered at $558,000 its the perfect spot for you to build your dream home.  For a video tour go to www.KiahunaLot.com and call me for more information.

We had some great activity last week for sales around our island.  A really nice number of properties that went into escrow and not a whole lot coming on the market.very even number of properties going into escrow, selling and coming on the market and this is reflecting what we are seeing in the National Real Estate Market.

Did you know that over 13,780 houses sold yesterday, 13,780 will sell today and 13,780 will sell tomorrow.  Hardly a “dead market”.  That is the average number of homes that sell each and every day in this country according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) latest Existing Home Sales Report. NAR reported that sales had increased 7.7% over the month before and 18.6% over the year before. According to the report, annualized sales now stand at 5.03 million. Divide that number by 365 (days in a year) and we can see that, on average, well over 13,000 homes sell every day.

These numbers, without a doubt, are below the number of homes that sold in 2006 which is a good thing as that was a very unhealthy market for the long term.  To say that the current real estate market is dead or that houses are not selling is totally inaccurate. Daily there are over 13,000 pieces of evidence to prove that.

For a list of what went into escrow, sold or came on the market  CLICK HERE FOR SPREADSHEET

Hawaii Data You Need To Know

Did you know…..

Housing costs in Hawaii last year were among the highest in the nation?  The Median Rent is $1,291 which is the highest in the nation which has a national average of $855.00 a month.

This segues into the reason why Hawaii’s home ownership rate of 58 percent placed the state among bottom four states in the nation. Washington D.C.was the lowest at 42.5 percent.

The median housing in Hawaii is $525,000 and this is also highest in the nation.  Only three other states —California, Massachusetts and New Jersey— and the District of Columbia had a median home value greater than $300,000. The national median home value was $179,900.

We are also first in the number of workers who carpool to work and we are number seven on the national list of states who use public transportation to work.

Visitor Arrivals To Hawaii Drop And Visitor Spending Is Up

Arrivals to Hawaii fell 4.2 percent in August but the visitor spending grew 2.3 percent.  Total arrivals decreased to 651,529 however the year to date arrivals are still 2.5 percent above where we were this time last year.

However the Hawaii Tourism Authority remains optimistic with anticipated airlift from markets such as Korea, Japan, China and Australia.  They fully expect this growth to continue well into 2012.

Honolulu Ranked #3 Best Place To Live

Where should you live?  According to Bloomberg Business Week, who ranked the United States in order of the most ideal places to live, Honolulu came in #3.  Extremely low unemployment, low levels of foreclosures and air quality are just some of the reasons why it’s a great place to live.  #1 was Raleigh NC and #2 was ArlingtonVA.  I grew up in Huntington Beach California and I found that Irvine California, which is very near Huntington, placed #5.

Hopefully Bloomberg can come to Kauai next year for their rankings because I know we will be number 1.  Here are their findings in their entirity and How and Why the rankings work…..

Why it’s ranked: From the prominent slopes of Diamond Head to the white beaches of Waikiki, Honolulu is a beautiful place to live and play. The area has done well through the recession, with extremely low unemployment and a low level of foreclosures. Go surfing and hang 10, then breathe deeply, because the air quality is about as good as it gets.

How it ranked:
Percent with bachelor’s degrees: 35.3
Percent under poverty level: 10.5
Median household income: $57,936
Violent crime rate: 279.7
Property crime rate: 3,679.2
School score: 72.72
Pro sports teams: 0
Foreclosure rate: .0028
Percent Unemployment: 5
Park acres per 1,000 residents: 6.7
Bars: 130
Restaurants: 1,264
Museums: 64
Colleges: 10
Libraries: 32
Air Quality Index: 80