Bill's Real Estate Blog

The link below will open the December 2007 Residential Resale Monthly Statistical Report for Oahu. (provided by the Honolulu Board of Realtors)

 Saturday, January 05, 2008MSR Dec 2007.pdf   You need Adobe Reader to open the this file. If you do not have Adobe Reader you can download it by clicking on the Adobe icon on the lower left of the home page.

If you would like to know what your property may sell for now please contact me for a free market anaylysis.

The median sales price for a condominium set a new record for Oahu in the third quarter, at $330,000, while median prices for single family homes dropped since the second quarter to $649,000. Compared to the same time last year, however, prices have had single-digit percentage increases of 2.3% and 4.8% for single family homes and condominiums. At the same time last year, prices stood at $635,000 and $315,000, respectively.

For the single family home market segment, the strongest gain by far was in the Diamond Head area, up 27.2%. This increase was followed by Central Oahu, up 11.8%, Leeward Coast, up 7.3%, Pearl City, up 5.3%, and Waipahu, up 3.1%. In the condominium category, the areas with the largest expansions were Pearl City, up 8.6%, Kaneohe, up 8.1%, Metro Oahu, up 6.5%, and Makakilo, up 6.1%.

The information above provided by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

Despite all of the negative news related to real estate values being broadcast by the national news networks, Ohau prices have not only remained stable, but have in fact, increase overall since last year.

Many prospective buyers have been waiting for the prices to come down. But so far sales prices have not dropped to any significant  degree in most Oahu neighborhoods. Give the more stringent criteria required by mortgage lenders now, the longer time on market and the drop in the number of sales, this firmness in pricing is surprising to some.

In order for sellers to attract offers, properties must be priced competitively or the buyers will ignore them. In this market, most serious buyers will not even go to look at overpriced properties. However, if a property is priced right, prepared so that it shows well and it is presented properly, there are still sales to be had at good prices. There are still plenty of buyers out there.

How much longer this sideways to slightly upward tend in pricing will continue is anyone's guess.

The word I am getting from a number of foreign buyers is that they are becoming more attracted to U.S. properties, especially Hawaii, because of the falling value of the U.S. Dollar. In fact, some very astute foreign buyers are now positioning themselves to take advantage of the Japanese Yen and the Euro's growing strength against the dollar by targeting in on some high end Honolulu properties.

Some foreign buyers are anticipating scooping up bargains as prices in the U.S. as real estate market softens because of the sub-prime situation as well as taking advantage of the attractive currency exchange rates as the dollar weakens against their currencies. This activity may help stabilize depreciation in real estate values in some areas and may help raise prices in other more desirable markets.