Hawaii Real Estate Daily

Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties is planning to reduce current asking prices on home listings starting Friday as part of a first-ever, nationwide event designed to stimulate the real estate market.

Nearly 100 homes, which represent about 15 percent of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties’ listings on Oahu, will be reduced from 5 to 20 percent from Friday to Oct. 19.

The move is part of an initiative to jumpstart the local and national real estate market.

Oahu’s home sales slumped last month, according to statistics from the Honolulu Board of Realtors, even as median prices dropped to $590,000, its lowest point in 31/2 years.

“We felt this was perfect timing,” said Chason Ishii, president of Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties. “It’s our hope that the Coldwell Banker 10 Day Sales Event will move buyers off the sidelines and into the market.”

Ishii said due to higher inventory, historic low interest rates and declining list prices, this is a great time to buy a home on Oahu. First-time homebuyers also have the added incentive of a $7,500 tax credit due to recent legislation.

Oahu homes participating cover a broad range of neighborhoods and property types.

For instance, a two-story Wilhelmina Rise home, previously listed at $1.1 million, will participate in the event at a price of $990,000. A 4-bedroom Makakilo home, previously listed at $635,000, will participate in the event at a price of $604,000.

In total, the estimated list price reductions will amount to more than $4 million, Coldwell Banker estimates.

During the local sales event, participating agents will also collect donations for the Institute for Human Services, a nonprofit that runs homeless shelters and programs.

In a recent survey of 3,379 Coldwell Banker real estate professionals across the nation, 56 percent said listing prices in their market remain above where they need to be to attract qualified buyers.

The survey also found: 77 percent agreed the majority of sellers in their market still have unrealistic expectations regarding the initial listing price for their homes; 79 percent agreed appropriately priced homes in their market are attracting more buyers and moving more quickly; 76 percent feel that a 10 percent or less reduction in listing prices in their area is all it will take to help push these homes over the “tipping point” to a sale.

Credits: Star Bulletin

Home sales on the Big Island and Kauai declined in August along with median home prices, in line with trends on Oahu, according to the latest numbers from Hawaii Information Service.

Only 83 existing homes were sold last month on the Big Island, a drastic decline from 121 the same month last year. A 20 percent drop in the median home price to $320,000 from $400,000 a year earlier didn’t help boost sales.

The picture for Kauai’s real estate market was bleak as well, with only 21 home sales last month, 15 less than in September 2007. This was despite a 21.9 percent drop in the median home price to $525,000, down from $672,500 in September 2007.

Condos on the Big Island fared a little better, with a median price increase to $315,000 from $294,292 last year. But sales dropped by almost half to 24, down from 40 in September 2007.

On Kauai, condo sales last month were down to eight, 12 less than 2007 despite a 16.1 percent drop in the median price to $495,000 compared to $590,000 in September 2007.

Because the markets on Kauai and the Big Island are smaller than Oahu, a few sales can skew medians, but last month’s statistics were consistent with the downward turn statewide.

The median sales price for an Oahu home dropped to $590,000 in September, its lowest point in 31/2 years, while the median price for a condo fell to $296,000, its lowest point in more than 21/2 years.

“The neighbor isles have been off considerably on both the Big Island and Kauai pushing two years,” said Jim Wright, chief executive of Century 21 All Islands. “Honolulu’s just starting to react to the same pressures.”

In this kind of market, Wright said newly minted real estate agents who could list a property and get multiple offers during good times won’t find it so easy any more. But these times are also good for agents to brush up on skills and work on additional professional designations, he said.

Year-to-date, Big Island sales volume for homes dropped 45.7 percent to $438.5 million, compared to $807.9 million in 2007. On Kauai, the sales volume for homes year-to-date dropped 36.7 percent to $206 million compared to $325.6 million during the same period last year.

Credits: Star Bulletin

The median price for single-family homes and condominiums on Oahu dropped more than 7 percent in September, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

The median price for single-family homes on Oahu dropped $45,000 to $590,000. Condominiums lost $32,000 in the median sales price.The number of single-family homes sold went from 255 in August to 215 in September. The number of condominiums sold in September was 305. That is 40 fewer than the month before.”Oahu’s housing market is beginning to feel the effects of the changing economic market, as demonstrated by the decline in both residential sales volume and the median prices paid in September,” HBR President Dana Chandler said. “We hope that this period of weak market conditions is short-lived and that we’ll soon return to a more normal market.

“HBR officials expressed support in Congress passing a bailout plan that they said could help jump start loans and mortgages to spur the housing market.”It appears the Oahu housing market is reacting to the economic crisis that has been affecting financial markets worldwide,” HBR research economist Harvey Shapiro said.

Depending on if you are trying to sell your home or buy one the numbers are either good or bad. But homeowners trying to sell are facing obstacles including low consumer confidence and buyers struggling to get loans.

A waterfront home on the Hawaii Kai Marina has sat on the market for the past two and a half months. The owner received two offers, but both were lower than asking price.The properties real estate representative said the slumping market has forced sellers to be patient and to pay attention to selling details.”What I tell my sellers is that we just have to make the best product we can so that just means staging, making sure the house is really clean, fixing up all those little things, maybe projects they didn’t get to before getting it on the market,” said Maile Hain of East Oahu Realty.

Scott Higashi is the vice president of sales for Prudential Locations. He agrees presentation is key and pricing your home correctly is essential to making a sale.”If you price high and you adjust buyers are going to be waiting for you to make that next adjustment,” Higashi said.One reason for the decrease in sales is the challenge buyers face with getting a loan.If you are able to secure a loan, Higashi said now is the time to buy.”There’s lots of opportunities for buyers out there the inventory interesting enough hasn’t grown really dramatically, but if you qualify for a loan and you find a house that you like you should definitely buy it,” he said.

Credits: KITV

For the first time in three years, median home prices on Oahu fell below $600,000.

The Honolulu Board of Realtors also said Wednesday that the total dollar-value of real estate sold on Oahu has dropped by nearly $1 billion so far this year.

At this time last year, $3.96 billion worth of single-family homes and condominiums had been sold. Through September, that number is down 25 percent to $2.95 billion, or $994 million less.

After holding fairly steady for much of the year, Oahu home prices tumbled last month, down 9.2 percent for single-family homes and nearly 12 percent for condos.

The median price for Oahu homes in September was $590,000, down from $635,000 in August and $650,000 the previous year. It was the first time the median price fell below $600,000 since 2005.

Condos fell to $296,000, down from $328,000 in August and $335,000 a year ago.

Transactions also fell, with 215 home sales recorded last month, down from 255 a year ago. Condo sales tumbled 26 percent, from 414 sales in September 2007 to 305 this year.

“Oahu’s housing market is beginning to feel the effects of the changing economic market, as demonstrated by the decline in both residential sales volume and the median sales prices paid in September,” Dana Chandler, president of the Realtors’ board said in a statement. “We hope that this period of weak market conditions is short-lived and that we’ll soon return to a more normal market.”

The board also cited “tighter qualifications and larger down payments” in obtaining mortgages for the decline in sales.

Median prices for single-family homes in the third quarter ranged from $361,000 on the Leeward Coast to $1.1 million in the Diamond Head-Kahala area.

Credits: Biz Journals

O’ahu home prices took their biggest hit of the year last month to upset what previously had been a mild downturn, as frightened consumers and battered credit markets appeared to shatter stability in Hawai’i’s largest housing market.

Median sale prices of previously owned single-family homes and condominiums each dropped about 10 percent in September, according to the latest data from the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

The median single-family home price fell 9.2 percent to $590,000 last month from $650,000 a year earlier. The median price has not been below $590,000 since April 2005.

The median condo price fell 11.6 percent to $296,000 last month from $335,000 a year earlier. The last time the condo median price was below $300,000 was April 2006.

Harvey Shapiro, Honolulu Board of Realtors research economist, said destabilized global financial markets that have rocked consumer confidence and restricted credit for home loans and other lending have begun to hurt local home sales.

“It appears that the O’ahu housing market is reacting to the economic crisis that has been affecting financial markets worldwide,” he said. “I think it’s scaring people into doing things they hadn’t planned on doing.”

Some observers expect that home sale prices will see similar or worse weakness in the coming months given the continued uncertainty in financial markets.

The gloomy outlook also stems from the fact that September sale statistics reflect deals typically made one to three months before. So a purchase agreed to this month in the midst of the planned federal financial industry bailout probably won’t close and show up in the sale data until sometime from November to January.

Ron Lee, an agent with Honolulu-based brokerage firm Real Estate Inc., said all the bad economic news is leading buyers, including investors, to really lowball sellers.

“They think they can get a really good deal,” he said, adding that offers $100,000 below an asking price are not uncommon nowadays. “It’s a challenging market.”

Lee said that at the extreme he’s seen some homes sell for 20 percent less than earlier comparable sales. One Waipahu house he has in escrow for a seller is contracted to sell at a price that he said is 5 percent below the sale price of a smaller house next door.

“The sellers understand what’s happening in the marketplace,” he said.
8.8% drop in june

Single-family home prices up until last month mostly had been down about 3 percent, as reduced demand led to dramatically fewer sales and mild price softness.

There was one month — June — when the median dropped 8.8 percent to $625,000 from a year earlier, but that was due in large part to the median price having set a record of $685,000 in June 2007.

Last month, there were 215 single-family home sales, down 15.7 percent from 255 a year earlier. The decrease was on the light side compared with drops near 30 percent in recent months. Inventory and the median number of days property took to sell were little changed from prior months.

Condo prices suffered an even more surprising drop last month, because this year up until September the median sale price had been up slightly in six of eight months, despite dramatically fewer sales.

However, it appears that the median condo price decline last month was influenced by significantly fewer sales in neighborhoods with luxury condos such as Kaka’ako and Hawai’i Kai. Sales in those two areas were down 40 percent to 50 percent.

Still, broader price weakness was evident in the market, with:

# A 6.7 percent dip in the median price of condos sold in the Pearl City-’Aiea area.

# An 11.1 percent decline for Makiki-Mo’ili’ili condos.

# An 18.5 percent drop for Waipahu condos.

# A 19.7 percent fall in O’ahu’s largest condo market, Waikiki.

The number of condo sales was down 26.3 percent to 305 last month from 414 a year earlier, a decline that was in line with recent months. Inventory and the median number of days property took to sell were little changed from prior months.

Besides financial market gyrations, weakness in the local economy, including a string of layoffs by major Hawai’i companies in recent months, has added to the pressure on the local housing market as some people who lose their jobs struggle to hang on to their homes.

The number of home foreclosures hasn’t been alarming in Hawai’i, but they have been consistently rising for about two years and are clearly affecting property values.

One home seller on O’ahu, who didn’t want to identify himself or his property so as not to harm sale prospects, said foreclosure sales in his townhouse complex are damaging his ability to attract decent offers since he listed the property about six months ago.

“It’s driving everything down,” he said. “It is dead.”

According to property records, one bank-owned unit in the same complex sold recently for about $100,000 less than what it sold for nearly three years ago.

Despite all the economic woes and weakened median prices, the market isn’t all that bad, according to many brokers.

“I still think Hawai’i has the strongest prices (among many U.S. markets),” said Lauren Ige, an agent with ‘Aiea-based firm Realty Group. “People are still buying. People are still selling. People still have needs.”

Mike Gallagher, broker-in-charge at RE/MAX Honolulu, predicted that median prices for the full year will settle at $620,000 for single-family homes and $320,000 for condos, respective changes of minus 3.7 percent and minus 1.5 percent.

The University of Hawai’i Economic Research Organization last month forecast a 3.6 percent decline in the median home price this year, and a 1 percent rise in the condo median price.

For the first nine months of the year, the single-family home median price is down 3.5 percent to $625,000, and the condo median price is unchanged at $325,000.

Credits: Honolulu Advertiser

Our country’s financial crisis is mainly due to bad mortgages and a stumbling housing industry.

While Oahu home prices are holding fairly steady, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of sales.

It’s now tougher to qualify for a home loan.

That combined with a fear about our nation’s economic situation have caused home sales to plummet.

“Good afternoon Gold Coast Real Estate.”

It’s not exactly a golden time for realtors.

“A friend of mine that is a realtor is now waiting tables at Waialae Country Club,” said relator Don Persons.

Don Persons has been a realtor in Hawaii for nearly 30 years.

His company, Gold Coast Real Estate, deals with mostly high end homes, from Diamond Head to Kahala, lots of second homes and investment property.

“Where the average island activity is down 30% we’re down over 60% from our peak time,” said Persons.

When asked how open houses have been, Persons replied, “Well I had one about eight days ago at Waikiki Beach Tower. First open house, beautiful remodel up on the 37th floor. And in three hours I had one person.”

While the good and bad times come in cycles…

“…it’s the worst I’ve seen as far as the overall what it’s doing to so many people. When real estate sales are down furniture sales are down repair work is down,” said Persons.

On Oahu, real estate prices have stayed relatively flat. And it’s a buyers market because of low mortgage rates.

Loans are available, if you qualify.

“It’s pretty easy if you have good credit and your credit scores decent, above 740 should be easy. Once you get into the 500s or 600s it becomes a problem,” said Don Lau, Hawaii Association of Mortgage Brokers.

The requirements to qualify for a home loan are much stricter now because of the subprime mortgage crisis.

It’s also tougher to refinance.

“Today the investors aren’t there, the buyers aren’t there. everyone is just fearful,” said Persons.

And what was once a bustling office is now mostly quiet.

“We’re hoping and praying for buyers to come by,” said Persons.

But Persons believes the golden time will come again, as it always has cycled in the past.

“We’re going to get through this, yeah,” said Persons.

Despite home sale prices plummeting in parts of the mainland, experts here believe the prices will continue to remain relatively flat.

Credits: KHON2

Prices of single-family homes fell in the second quarter, but at a slower rate than in the previous three-months, an economic analysis company said Thursday.

The median price of a U.S. home slipped at an annual rate of 5.3 percent in the second quarter, up from a 6.6 percent decline in the first quarter, according to the House Prices in America study by Global Insight Inc.

The most severe declines were in California, Florida and Michigan, representing 43 of the 50 worst-performing metropolitan areas.

Other cities in the bottom 50 include Las Vegas, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

Just six markets were overpriced by 35 percent or more, down from 51 in 2005, Global Insight said.

This “extreme overvaluation” was limited to Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and Utah, the study said.

Weak demand, rising foreclosures and fewer sales of expensive homes have hurt prices in the sagging housing market.

But the slowdown in price declines and the amount of extremely overvalued markets are signs that the housing “bubble” has burst, the company said.

Still, real estate markets are not ready to recover, and there remains a glut of unsold homes on the market—a situation made worse by foreclosures, the company said.

The study examines 330 markets and bases its regional valuations on factors such as current and historic home prices, interest rates, household incomes and population density.

“Although the markets that were extremely overvalued two years ago are seeing expected price declines, other areas are seeing price declines due to weak economic conditions,” said Jeannine Cataldi, senior economist and manager of Global Insight’s Regional Real Estate Service.

“The market has a lot of inventory to work through before prices will change course.”

Credits: Chicago Tribune

Single-family home and condominium resales on Oahu plummeted in July, compared with the same month last year, the Honolulu Board of Realtors reported.

Median sales prices also dropped - 3.1 percent to $620,000 for homes and 1.5 percent to $329,000 for condos, it said. Median price means half the prices were above and half below the given price.

The board said on Monday that 251 homes sold last month, compared with 339 in July 2007, for a 26 percent decline, while condo sales fell 20.1 percent from 457 in July of last year to 365 this July.

In all, single-family home resales decreased 25.7 percent over the first seven months of 2008, while condo resales were off 26.6 percent, the group said.

From January through July, the median sales price for single-family homes on Oahu fell 2.8 percent to $627,000 while the median sales price for condos increased 1.5 percent to $330,000, it said.

“The number of resales in the Oahu housing market may be starting to stabilize at these reduced levels,” board research economist Harvey Shapiro said.

“The rate of decline has softened a bit and this could signal that we’re nearing the bottom of this slower market, but we need to see a few more months of data to confirm this,” he said. “Our prices are still staying near current levels, although these softer market conditions may require more seller concessions to make a deal.”

Board president Dana Chandler said July sales figures showed an increase in the time a property was on the market before a sales agreement was reached.

“Single-family homes needed an average 52 days to sell and condominiums took 42 days, both increases from last year’s 44 and 38 days,” Chandler said. “Buyers may be more cautious with the current state of the economy, but so far our markets still seem to be operating normally, and Honolulu continues to provide a stable environment for both buyers and sellers.”

Credits: Forbes