Kauai Real Estate Update- To find out the real estate activity on the island for last week click here; Kauai Real Estate Activity December 30 to January 5, 2025
Poipu Beach Real Estate Update- Kiahuna Golf Course sold for $12.5 million, the listing price was $14.5 Million. The golf course was on the market for 429 days and had been listed before several times. To see this listing click here; Kiahuna Golf Course Sale
To see all the fee simple real estate activity in Poipu since January 1, 2025 click here; Poipu Beach Current Market Analysis
Kiahuna Plantation Real Estate Update- Just Listed; Renovated Partial Ocean View Kiahuna Plantation unit #168 $495,000 (LH). This unit’s prime location and thoughtful features make it a highly sought-after vacation rental and future bookings are included in the sale. This unit has a perfect “10 out of 10” rating on VRBO and with all of the upgrades it’s easy to see why. Enjoy the video and contact me for more information, rental income available upon request. To see all of the real estate activity at the Kiahuna Plantation click here; Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis
Nurses At Wilcox To Go On Strike
The nurses at Wilcox Hospital in Lihue are going on a three-day strike starting January 7 to the 10th. Their issues seem to be the same as the previous strikes done by Nurses at ones the Oahu nurses had and the president of the Hawaii Nurse Association said this; “The nurses are saying, ‘Enough already. It’s time to move forward and do what’s right for the people of Kauai.’ The nurses are fighting for safer nurse-to-patient staffing to deliver good care for patients and are being put through hell because of their commitment to professionalism.” The nurses contract ended on August 31, 2024 and they have been in negotiations since then. Back in October the Wilcox nurses did a “information picket line”, a demonstration of sorts.
The nurses at Queen’s on Oahu also voted to go on strike. Negotiations are set for January 9 and 10 for the Wilcox nurses, the hospital spokesperson said they are committed to reaching an agreement.
Deadly Hawaii Illegal Fireworks Incident
When my husband and I first moved over here from Southern California we found the fireworks on the Forth-Of-July were almost non-existent. But on New Years it’s another story, and on Oahu it’s really another story.
Combating illegal fireworks in the state has been difficult with not a lot of headway made, but all that might be changing due to a horrific incident on Oahu that left 4 people dead, 20 people injured and 6 people flown to Arizona Burn Center.
On New Years Eve at a home in the Salt Lake area a person lite an “aerial cake” ( a container that contains multiple aerial fireworks) in the carport of the driveway. Instead of the cake bomb exploding into the air it fell on its side and shot into crates of fireworks that were in the garage. The footage of the scene looks like the home was in a war zone. Our Governor had this to say; “The truth is that people had traumatic injuries so badly that brain material was across the sidewalk from the ferocity of this explosion, and we want people to hear that because that is what is really possible with these explosive fireworks. Some of the deceased had injuries that were that tragic, that traumatic. We’re talking about the worst possible war zone injuries that took their lives.”
From the news it’s clear this has moved beyond being fireworks at this point, these are actual bombs. In 2023 the “Illegal Fireworks Task Force” was formed and to date they have seized 227,000 pounds of illegal fireworks. The challenges officials face is evidence literally going up into smoke, people not being willing to turn their neighbors or friends in and police that are already stretched to their limits on New Years.
New penalties including felony charges are being looked at to help combat this problem.
Kauai Year End Real Estate Report
Higher interest rates, the 2024 Election slow down, rising condominium insurance costs and additional assessments made this year in real estate challenging. Additionally, we had the lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors settlement in August that now has Buyers signing Buyer Representation Agreements stating that they would be paying the commission and how much that was going to be.
It was an interesting year.
Despite the significant headwinds; home sales ended on a high note with over a 25% increase in sales and over 20% rise in their Median Prices. The Condominium market really shocked me with a decrease in sales of only -1.36% Island Wide and an Increase in their Median Prices by 8.37%. Overwhelmingly, Sellers are still paying the commissions for the Buyers side and Buyers are signing the Representation Agreements.
Below is a graph of the Kauai Real Estate market at the end of 2024 compared to 2023, if you have any questions on how this relates to you give me a call.
