Gary's Blog

The Federal Reserve has signaled confidence in a recovery yesterday, when it decided to stretch out the pace of a program intnded to lower mortgage rates and prop up the housing market. Rather than buying $1.45 trillion in mortgage backed securityies and debt by the end of this year, they pushed that deadline back to the end of March. That's the second time since August that the Fed has opted to slow emergency programs designed to encourage spending and boost the economy.

On a personal note, my wife, Debbie, is an interior designer. She went into Pottery Barn yesterday, and they told her that nationwide, Pottery Barn just had its best month (last month) in the past two years! It looks like consumers are feeling more confident as well.

At Coldwell Banker Island Properties, as of the 15th of this month, our company has put 27 properties in escrow. That's about two new escrows per day, the same pace we had in August. September is typically a very slow month here, but it doesn't seem to have slowed down.

Also, another agent just told me yesterday she has a $10 million cash beachfront buyer coming into town, and when she searched for properties to show him, six beachfront properties that she had hoped to show were either in escrow or closed escrow.

On the low-end, Kihei Villages is showing some real strength. There are only 14 Active listings in the complex of 532 units. Typically, if less than 5% of a project is available for sale, that indicates strength in values. There are six units in escrow in the complex right now, and in the past six months, 13 unit sales have closed in the complex. That means we have less than six months' inventory, another strong indicator for future values.

Labels: Hawaii real estate, Kihei, Lahaina, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, ocean front real estate, vacation property in Maui, wailea real estate

U.S. businesses reduced inventories at the wholesale level for a record 11th consecutive month in July. Plus sales rose by the largest amount in more than a year.

In a separate report, global trade is increasing U.S. imports by a record amount in July and boosting foreign demand for American goods for a third straight month.

An first-time unemployment claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week - cause for more optimism.

It seems the positive indicators coming out in the news, if you compare them to the negative indicators, are winning 2:1.

I'm ready!

Labels: Hawaii real estate, Keawakapu, Kihei, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, property in Maui, wailea real estate

Lots of good news today!

Federal Reserve Chairmani Ben Bernanke yesterday gave his most optimistic outlook since the financial crisis began, saying the economy is on the verge of growing again.

July home sales surge for the fourth month in a row, posting the largest monthly increase in at least ten years. Sales jumped 7.2% to an annual rate of 5.24 million units. This was the strongest month since August 2007.


Demand for entry- and mid-level houses has led to bidding wars in Southern California, as buyers are shopping for homes again, optimistic that values have been beaten down about as low as they will go and triggering the highest sales levels in more than two years. A report released Tuesday shows a sharp rise in home purchases and an increase in median prices for a third straight month -- suggesting that the two-year decline in home values may finally be over. The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-home-sales19-2009aug19,0,5419938.story

Labels: beach front real estate, Keawakapu, Kihei, Lahaina, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, South Kihei, South Maui, Wailea, wailea real estate

Good news for Hawaii travellers. Over 170 new Hawaiian Airlines positions will be filled soon, after having hired 100 new workers in recent months.

Economists say that employment growth follows the economic growth. Could this mean...

Hawaiian is about to add a new long-range Airbus, with a range of close to 7000 miles, to its fleet. That will give Hawaiian the ability to fly nonstop to all of North America as well as points in eastern Asia.

The world is getting smaller, and Hawaii is getting closer to everyone in the process!

Labels: Keawakapu, Kihei, Lahaina, Makena, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, ocean front real estate, property in Maui, South Kihei, South Maui, Wailea, wailea real estate

The first time that the jobless rated dropped in 15 months happend in July. A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, while the average workweek and wages went up in the newest figures. Economists are overwhelmingly in agreement that the recession is in transition to recovery.

Labels: beach front real estate, Keawakapu, Kihei, Makena, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, ocean front real estate, South Kihei, South Maui, vacation property in Maui

For the second month in a row, we've had an uptick in single-family home resales prices. Through July, $1.5 billion in real estate transactions have closed, not bad for what Maui News likes to call "the worst recession since..."

Median prices were up from June on condos and single family residences. SFR's were up a whopping 4.6% in just one month!

The positive news just keeps rolling in...

Labels: beach front real estate, Keawakapu, Kihei, Makena, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, ocean front real estate, South Kihei, South Maui

Well folks, I know good news doesn't sell. But if you want to find it, here it is!
U.S. Manufacturing activity is expected to actually grow next month for the first time since January 2008.
Construction spending rose for the second time in three months in June, as residential building increased. The 0.3% increase is a far cry from the expected 0.5% drop!
The S&P index is back to 4-digit territory, closing over 1000 yesterday for the first time since 11/4/08. That puts the index up over 48% since March.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose for the fourth day in a row today.
Real estate prices are holding steady, inventory is decreasing nationwide, and public optimism is growing.

Labels: beach front real estate, Keawakapu, Kihei, Makena, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui real estate, maui realtor, ocean front real estate, South Kihei, South Maui

A recent nationwide poll shows about half of potential homebuyers are skittish about making the move, their number one concern is job stability.

Realtor.com released the survey on Thursday, showing 53% of the people who would be buying a home in the near future, are not quite ready yet.

This is quite an optimistic report for those of us who are active in the market, for two reasons:
1. If we are still alive (!), we can see the pent-up demand is building, and it is just a matter of time before all "heck breaks loose"
2. Because the number of sales are down, there is an incredible number of bargains to be had out there right now. The inventory provides excellent choices, unlike the '05 rally, where buyers took whatever came up, just to get into the screaming market.

Among those who are planning to buy in the near future, they don't expect prices to drop further, and they want to take advantage of the government incentives while they are here. These incentives are over effective 12/1/09.

If you would like to see the whole article, just shoot me an e-mail titled "skittish buyers", and I'll shoot it right back to you.

Labels: Kihei, Makena, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, maui realtor, South Kihei, South Maui, Wailea, wailea real estate

Wow! What a great time to be a real estate buyer on Maui!



Maui residential real estate sales were better in May than in April, although still not much more than half as much as in May 2008. The Multiple Listing Service report of the Realtors Association of Maui on Monday showed sales of 56 single-family houses and 47 condominiums closed in May. In May 2008, there were 97 houses and 84 condos closed.



However, the number of sales improved from the 48 houses and only 29 condos in April. Prices were little changed from April, but cumulative numbers for the first five months averaged 19 percent lower (for houses) and 31 percent lower (for condos) than the year before.



Average house prices are up slightly in Kihei ($695,393) and Central Maui ($513,990) so far this year; but they are down sharply in most of the rest of Maui.



The market is taking it off the top. In Lahaina, for example, the average house price has dropped by a third to $958,850. But the median price (at which half of sales were for more, half for less) is almost steady at $830,500.



This average is based on only a few transactions - a dozen in Lahaina - but the inference is supported in other west-side communities.



In Kaanapali, the average price has fallen by $800,000 to $1.4 million and in Kapalua by $2.9 million to $2.1 million.



Since there are so few sales, a few can swing the averages a lot; but the pricier the neighborhood, the greater the percentage drop: Maui Meadows is down 61 percent to $675,000; Wailea-Makena is down 21 percent to $2.7 million; and Kula-Ulupalakua-Kanaio is down 58 percent to $636,667.



Maui Meadows was noticeable as the slowest sales area: There were seven transactions in five months there last year, only one so far this year.



For condos, with the exception of Kaanapali, sales and prices are down everywhere. Although the overall fall in prices was bigger than for single-family homes, the pain was spread more evenly across communities.



Kaanapali stood out with more sales (39 compared with 26 last year) at higher prices ($1.3 million compared with $1.2 million).



One-third of all condo sales occur in Kihei, but the market there shrank from 178 closings last year to 80 this year. Prices dropped 22 percent to $411,728.



The total value of transactions for residential real estate shrank from $806 million to $316 million for the first five months of each year.

Labels: Kihei, Lahaina, Makena Real Estate, Maui Meadows, Wailea