Kauai Real Estate Update- For a complete list of all the real estate activity on the island for last week click here: Kauai Real Estate Update November 20 to 26, 2023
Poipu Beach Real Estate Update- Listed at $14.5 million the Kiahuna Golf Course went under contract last week, it had been on the market for 383 days. When the sale is completed, the final details will be reported here, to see this listing click here: Kiahuna Golf Course MLS Data. For a complete list of all the real estate activity in Poipu Beach since January 1 click here: Poipu Beach Fee Simple Current Market Analysis
Kiahuna Plantation Update- For all the real estate happenings at the Kiahuna for this year to date click here: Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis
Thanksgiving Day Walk In Poipu
The weather was perfection on Thanksgiving as I did my favorite activity to start this day by taking a long walk around the south shore beaches. The day was glorious and it was such a positive way to start the day, strangers were all greeting each other with “Happy Thanksgiving!!” and early on the beaches were packed. Not sure why, but it seemed this year there were a huge number of beach umbrellas, more so than normal. They dotted the shorelines and just looked adorable.
At the Waiohi; this is a spot where the surfers like to take off from and there was a solid line up of blue beach umbrellas. Next, I was at Poipu Beach and at 11:30 in the morning there were still a couple of turtles out on the beach. My last stop was the Grand Hyatt where there was a Monk Seal. The turtles and seal were roped off and everybody was respectfully giving them their space.
No matter if you were a local or a tourist, on Thanksgiving Day in Poipu you were one happy camper. The great weather, good vibrations, great ocean conditions and wildlife that you don’t normally see from where you are visiting from boxes were all checked!
Kauai Rescues May Start Including A Bill For Services
Bill 2910 will enable Kauai County to charge those people that are deemed being reckless for being rescued and it’s currently working its way through the Kauai County Council. This applies to anything over $1,000 and is the language in the bill is pretty clear at who this is aimed at as a part of this Bill reads: “Reimbursement under Subsection (a) shall be allowed only if the need for search or rescue was caused by any act or omission by the person searched for or rescued, constituting intentional disregard for the person’s safety, including, but not limited to, intentionally disregarding a warning or notice.”
One of the Council members stated “This isn’t going to stop them because they think they’re indestructible, that they’re bulletproof. But there should be a way for us to recover the expenses to send a message to others that if you’re going to do stupid things, it comes with a price.”
New Rescue Donation Account Also Added
This Bill will also establish a “Search and Rescue Wildfire Response Donations Account” allowing people to voluntarily contribute to funding rescue efforts and will include wildfire response costs. This is aimed at visitors who might have been rescued in the past or who just want to give back to the community.
To see the Bill in its entirety click here: Bill 2910
How Many Local Hawaiians Are Moving And Where Are They Going?
During COVID we saw a shift in demographics and Hawaii was not immune to that. The move is not based on politics so much as it is locals getting priced out of a place to live and fewer job opportunities. So where are they going? In 2021 and 2022 Hawaii lost 11,000 more people than it gained and they migrated to California, Washington and Texas. My question is where is Las Vegas on this list? I would have thought that would have been #1 but they came in 5th which was a bit of a surprise to me.
During those two years 67,257 people left the state and 56,209 moved here. Here are the numbers and where these people went to for the top 8 States during 2021 and 2022:
California: 10,747
Washington: 7,392
Texas: 6,970
North Carolina: 3,685
Nevada: 3,380
Maryland: 3,306
Florida: 2,858
Georgia: 2,642
After A Week On The Run, Man Arrested For Armed Robbery
A man from the Big Island had been on the run for a week, successfully eluding KPD for over a week. The man is alleged to have committed an armed robbery by carjacking a Toyota Corolla at gunpoint at Ahukini Landing in Lihue. There were no injuries reported during this incident. He is being held on a $114,000 bail at the Kauai jail.
Year To Date National Home Sales
We’ve reviewed where Kauai and the rest of state are at for real estate sales at the end of October 2023 compared to the same time a year ago. Nationally I’ll include a quote from Lawrence Yun, the NAR Chief Economist who stated "Prospective home buyers experienced another difficult month due to the persistent lack of housing inventory and the highest mortgage rates in a generation. Multiple offers, however, are still occurring, especially on starter and mid-priced homes, even as price concessions are happening in the upper end of the market. While circumstances for buyers remain tight, home sellers have done well as prices continue to rise year-over-year, including a new all-time high for the month of October. In fact, a typical homeowner has accumulated more than $100,000 in housing wealth over the past three years.”
Below is a graph from the NAR which highlights the main 3 takeaways from real estate sales for the first 10 months compared to this same time last year.
