Aloha clients, friends and neighbors,

Lissette and I are wishing you the best wherever you may be reading our community newsletter. The summer of 2018 has been eventful with the Kilauea eruption and hurricane Lane and Olivia passing by and miraculously we have survived all of these events unscathed on the west side of the island. Our thoughts and prayers go out to our east side of the island friends and clients as it’s been a far different result there with high winds, flooding and heavy Vog. Thankfully, the entire island’s weather relative to Vog has completely subsided as a result of the volcano’s various vents emitting next to no emissions for the first time in many years, resulting in some of the best weather I’ve ever seen on the Kohala Coast including Kona town and south for the last month. I hope this remains as the new “normal”, clear, bright blue skies!

Many of my clients have asked what effect if any have the weather and volcanic events had on sales in 2018. Since all markets are very local with sales within the 20, Mauna Lani communities varying quite a bit (because of various factors), I thought a productive analysis would be to compare 2017 to 2018 for the Mauna Lani Resort total sales (YTD) and The Villages at Mauna Lani community (YTD) total sales. If interested I can perform the same analysis for your particular community in any area-let me know!

Various factors could affect these stats including sales closing on the new construction units in the Lau’lea community and the lack of closed new construction sales in Kulalani because of the lender foreclosure and subsequent sales stoppage. I speculate these factors somewhat cancelled each other out and the resulting positive sales figures between 2017 and 2018 within the Mauna Lani Resort and The Villages at Mauna Lani are impressive.

Between January 1, 2018 and September 12, 2018-Gross sales volume within the resort are up over the same time period in 2017, +21% and unit volume, almost exclusively condominiums, is up +29%. More impressively, The Villages sales are up +44% in unit volume (5 units vs. 9 units) and +48% in dollar volume of units sold. Villages units sold at almost twice the pace as last year during this time period. This could be as a result of list prices being more realistic as I observed many listing’s prices being lowered and new listing’s prices not far from where the last comparable unit’s sold price. In my last newsletter article I stated that a typical Lehua unit without a solar system sold for an average of $880k and sure enough I just closed unit 603 which was listed for $920k for a sales price of $880k!

Seller’s listing price, at or very near the last unit’s sold price (of a comparable unit) will yield a lower days on market (average 70 days when finally priced correctly) and potentially a slightly higher price. This is the best advice I can give sellers in this market as prices are not escalating much at this point and I do not predict much more than a 2-3% gain per year for the next year or 2, until our “bull” real estate market runs out of steam and completely flattens out in the coming years. The good news is I believe it will be at worst “flat” unless some other factor effects us in the next 2-3 years. FYI-2013 looks like the year most homes in Mauna Lani gained the most in percentage terms from a market bottom in 2009-13%.

Please contact me if you are interested in a market analysis of your unit within The Villages or elsewhere on the island. I really enjoy the statistical analysis of our real estate markets as well as gathering other facts regarding each community along the Kohala Coast. Knowing the “Facts and Stats” regarding our market add value to my teams representation of buyers and seller’s alike. I’m often the person agents call regarding our the Mauna Lani Resort even when their client may be interested in a unit I do not have listed. I’m always happy to help 🙂 I look forward to hearing from you! Let my 31 years in real estate and complete knowledge of our community and resort be to your benefit!

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See you at the beach!

Aloha,

Direct-808-960-7330

Mauna Lani and The Villages at Mauna Lani Stats:

Mauna Lani Gross Sales Dollar Volume 1-1-17 to 9-12-17 ($66,050,500.00)
Mauna Lani Gross Sales Dollar Volume 1-1-18 to 9-12-18 ($83,803,909.00) (+21% Year over Year)
Mauna Lani sales Unit Volume 1-1-17 to 9-12-17 (54 unit sales-primarily condominiums)
Mauna Lani sales Unit Volume 1-1-18 to 9-12-18 (76 unit sales primarily condominiums) (+29% Year over Year)

Villages Gross Sales Dollar Volume-1-1-17 to 9-12-17 ($5,986,500.00)
Villages Gross Sales Dollar Volume-1-1-18 to 9-12-18 ($11,594,000) (+48% Year over Year)

Villages sales Unit volume-1-1-17 to 9-12-17 (5 units)
Villages sales Unit volume-1-1-18 to 9-12-18 (9 units) (+44% Year over Year)

Written by Rick Oliver on September 25, 2018
Posted in: Real Estate | Tags: Hawaii Real Estate, property sales