Kauai Real Estate, Southwest Adds Hawaii Flights, Oahu-Maui-Big Island Real Estate 2020 vs 2021

Kauai Real Estate, Southwest Adds Hawaii Flights, Oahu-Maui-Big Island Real Estate 2020 vs 2021

  • Lynda Gill
  • 05/18/21

Kauai Real Estate- For a list of the properties that have Sold, were Just Listed or went into Escrow this last week on the island of Kauai click here:  Kauai Real Estate May 10 to 17, 2021

Poipu Beach Real Estate Update- Sold!  This is such a unique condominium and I was really excited when I took this listing.  I try to find that “hook” when marketing a property for my Sellers.  When talking about the property it’s inspiring for me to focus on the feature that makes it stand out from the others and for Poipu Sands unit 422 it was not hard to find.  There were only 2 three-bedroom, three bath condominiums that were built in this entire complex!  The lanai is larger than most as it runs the entire span of the condominium providing an outdoor living area with ocean views.  Congratulations to my Sellers, we closed on this yesterday at $1,045,000 which is just a little over 1% off the listing price. 
To get updated on all the real estate news here in Poipu click here:  Poipu Beach Current Market Analysis

Kiahuna Plantation Real Estate Update- My Kiahuna page has been updated with the latest real estate news on all things Kiahuna!  To access this click here:  Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis

Southwest Airlines Adds New Gateway Cities To Hawaii Flights
If you live in Las Vegas, Los Angeles or Phoenix starting June 6 there will be more flights options for you to travel to Hawaii.  All three of these cities will have non-stop flights connecting to all four major islands. 
Clearly Southwest is bullish on Hawaii travel and Andrew Watterson, executive VP for Southwest, stated “We're building on an era of affordability that Southwest initiated for Hawaii air travel.  These new flights bring Hawaii service closer to more of our customers who live near airports across the West, and make it possible to choose Southwest to fly between the Aloha State and cities as far east as Nashville, without spending an entire overnight in the air." 
Southwest also announced that they will be adding additional flights to the routes already established to Hawaii from Oakland, San Diego and San Jose.

United Airlines Says “Aloha” To The OC!
Last week United Airlines added a non-stop flight from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, CA to Honolulu.  They stated this is the first route they have added at this airport since before the pandemic.
And that’s not the end of it.  Hawaii travel demand is ramping up and United is going to expand their service to Hawaii this summer with two new nonstop flights; Chicago to Kona and Newark to Maui both in June.

Offer Accepted On Your Property!  But Now The Buyer Wants A Price Cut?
Great news, you are in escrow and everything is going great until the buyer’s agent asks for a sizable price reduction.  Is this common?  Why is this happening?  Better yet, how can this be happening?
In short this sometimes is a strategy used by Buyers when they have paid more than what they initially wanted to for a property.  In a market like this, with multiple and above list price offers we can see more of this.  If the other side is using this as a tactic they are counting on the time that the property has been under contract and your emotions to work in their favor.  
I don’t want to label every price reduction asked for as a "strategy" or give the impression that this is a normal part of our transactions over here.  My Realtor friends on the mainland (it seems) are running into this more than we are on Kauai.
So say that’s where you are at right now, you’ve been under contract for a while and the Buyer uses some contingency (home inspection, sellers disclosure are common) as a reason to ask for a sizable price reduction.  If you don’t give them the reduction, they say they will cancel.  You and your agent might suspect that they are trying to scale back that purchase price but it’s hard to know for absolute sure.  Your options really don’t make you feel any better either;  you can either give them the reduction and move on or deny their reduction and run the risk of them cancelling.
Again, without really knowing if the other side is using this as a tactic it’s a gut wrenching spot to be in.  Guidance from your agent on the pros and cons of giving them the reduction and being prepared for the buyers cancelling is imperative at this point.

I had someone ask me if I have ever used this strategy and the answer is no, not once.  This reads Zero on the Aloha Meter and is just bad business.

Oahu, Maui and Big Island Real Estate Year To Date
Last week I blogged about Kauai’s 2021 Year To Date real estate activity compared to this same time last year.  This week I have the information for the other islands. 
The rise in sales and prices are the same story as what we are seeing here with lack of inventory seems to be the only problem.  Oahu reported that their single family home inventory is the lowest it’s been in 40 years.  With the buying that happened in 2020 and the lack of building last year this problem does not seem to be going away anytime soon.

On Oahu the inventory is dropping, the Days on Market are dropping but the offers that are coming in over asking price are up.  The price of a single family home rose to $930,000 compared to April 2020 when it was $810,000.  The number of sales are 53% higher than last year.
Condominium Median Prices are even at $450,000 which is what it was this same time last year.  Condo sales are up 88% and this activity will start showing up in the Median Price soon.

On Maui homes were 33.8% higher than at the end of April of last year.  YTD 459 homes have sold compared to 343 in 2020.  The Median Price is up as well at $975,000 compared to $761,625
Condo sales through April totaled 772 units, which was 51.4% more than the 510 units that sold in the first four months of 2020.  The Median Price on Condominiums is at $620,000 compared to $567,000 in 2020.

The Big Island of Hawaii home sales are up 34.11% from last year.  There have been 1,089 sales year to date compared to 812 in 2020.  The Median Price rose to $465,000 which is 15.31% higher than last years $403,250. 
Condominiums took a massive 101.28% uptick in the number of sales, 473 YTD compared to 235 in 2020.  Prices are up as well with the Median Price being $481,000 compared to $375,000 last year.

Work With Lynda

Speaking from experience, I am here to tell you that dreams can turn into reality with a bit of planning and the help of an experienced Kauai realtor. I'd love to share my expertise with you if you are thinking of making Kauai your future home.