Kauai Real Estate Update- This last week I have been seeing a slight slow down in our real estate market. I verified this with a couple of escrow officers and had an interesting conversation with an appraiser. He attributed it to a lack of inventory on the market. Here is the scoop: For homes that are actively listed at $1.3 million and under:
Poipu 1
Princeville 3
Lihue 3
Kapaa 14
For a complete list of all the real estate activity that happened last week on the island of Kauai click here: Kauai Real Estate Activity May 17 to 23, 2021
Poipu Beach Real Estate Update- There are only 32 homes that are actively listed right now in Poipu. Price starts at $925,000 and jumps to $1,595,000 and caps at $6,750,000. There are only 24 fee simple condominiums actively listed starting at $545,000 for a Prince Kuhio Studio and up to $3,050,000 for a Kukui’ula Kainani Villas condo. For a complete rundown click here: Poipu Beach Fee Simple Current Market Analysis
Poipu Beach side note….I went to the beach one evening last week to take in the sunset with some friends and spotted a giant Flamingo in the water! This was a first for me I will say….enjoy…
Kiahuna Plantation Real Estate Update- Currently there are 20 units for sale at the Kiahuna Plantation which is small number of units for this complex that has 333 condominiums. Only 1 of those is a two bedroom. For more information click here: Kiahuna Plantation Current Market Analysis
Kauai Returns To Tier 4
Right after Kauai opened back up to tourism we saw a spike in our COVID cases that was the highest it had ever been. The County rolled back to Tier 3.
Good news is yesterday (May 24) the number of new cases went to an average of 2 per day for two consecutive weeks and now we are back at Tier 4. This is the least restrictive Tier and it allows for larger gatherings.
Rental Car Shortage On Kauai
The Rental Car Industry took a hit during COVID and this, plus the national shortage of semi-conductor computer chips is making getting a rental car on Kauai a challenge.
Here’s how we got here: During the pandemic Hawaii had some of the strictest travel rules in the U.S. and after watching from the sidelines for a while rental car companies began to sell off their cars and/or move them to other markets that were more profitable. Storing them here in Hawaii was expensive with their business down as much as 90% it was the obvious decision to make.
The impacts of that are being felt now that Kauai has only 60% of their rental car inventory (compared to pre-pandemic) and tourists are coming back. Other sources like Uber and Lyft are not as prevalent here on Kauai as they are on the mainland, or on Oahu for that matter. During the pandemic the Rideshare and Taxi Drivers had a massive drop off in their business too, those drivers that are still standing are now overwhelmed.
Adding to the problem are Kauai’s buses which will not allow people to bring on luggage, most hotels do not have shuttles and there is a National shortage of semiconductor chips which is impacting the car manufacture industry.
This situation does not appear to be getting better anytime soon and there’s not a lot of solutions. My advice is this: make your car rental reservation ASAP.
Surge In Airline Bookings Impacts Hawaiian Airlines Site
Last week the amount of people that were trying to book tickets to Hawaii overwhelmed the site and the staff. Hawaiian Airlines said they are working on both of these issues.
Hawaiian Airlines stated: “Both (issues) however, are driven by the same underlying cause: an unexpectedly sharp surge in demand to book or rebook travel. And the two issues have compounded each other. The errors on our website have prompted customers to contact our call center; and the inability to get through to our call center has driven more traffic to the website.”
They have added 100 call agents and have been working 24/7 on their website.
Facial Screening At Lihue Airport
The state Department of Transportation Airport Division announced that all five airports in Hawaii, including Kauai’s airport in Lihue, now have facial imaging screening. The “Thermal Screening Project” has been done in phases. Last August thermal screening cameras were installed which captures passengers’ temperatures at arrival gates. The Facial Recognition System is only activated when those thermal screeners read a temperature of 100.4 and higher.
The pictures that are collected are anonymous and deleted after 30 minutes.
