6 West Hawaii Real Estate | August 3, 2018
MLS Statistics Real estate market doing well despite volcano
Iget asked daily how the market is
doing with all the news of dropping
hotel occupancy rates and Jack’s
Tours going out of business. So here
is my informal, antidotal story of what I
see happening in Kona. Saturday morning
for breakfast this weekend, the restaurant
on Alii Drive was busy, a friends oceanview
vacation rental in downtown doesn’t
have any more days available in 2018
since they have a full set of reservations
from now till the end of the year, and
well, Jack’s Tours is sad but their primary
business was bus tours of Volcanoes National
Park and the park has yet to reopen
after months of being closed. So, although
the hotel occupancy rate on the island has
dropped 6 percent, it is still in the high 70
percent range, which use to be very good
for us but with the recent upturn is a little
below the all-time recent highs in the 80s.
Real estate buyers are still buying.
We have 81 houses and 64 condos in
escrow as of this writing as well as 49
combined sales so far this month, just a
few days before the end of the month.
Now the sales number is arguably on the
low side but so were the house pendings
last month, so this may just be a delayed
swing from when no one knew when life
would return to normal in Kona, about
eight weeks after the volcano started by
my count. But it has returned to normal.
People are traveling here, people are
renting cars and buying houses, and we
are all so grateful that we are back on the
path to figuring out how to live with the
changes that the new eruption location
has brought into our lives.
Here are a few graphs to show you
statistically we are no that far off in Kona
from last year at this time and in Kohala
we are doing even better… here’s to West
Hawaii’s resilience.
North Kona Sales - Year by Quarter - Through June 2018 - Residential / Land South Kohala Sales - Year by Quarter - Through June 2018 - Residential / Land
Existing-home sales decreased
for the third straight month
in June, as declines in the
South and West exceeded
sales gains in the Northeast and
Midwest, according to the National
Association of Realtors. The ongoing
supply and demand imbalance helped
push June’s median sales price to a
new all-time high.
Total existing-home sales, https://
www.nar.realtor/existing-home-sales,
which are completed transactions that
include single-family homes, townhomes,
condominiums and co-ops,
decreased 0.6 percent to a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 5.38 million
in June from a downwardly revised
5.41 million in May. With last month’s
decline, sales are now 2.2 percent
below a year ago.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist,
says closings inched backwards
in June and fell on an annual basis
for the fourth straight month. “There
continues to be a mismatch since the
spring between the growing level of
homebuyer demand in most of the
country in relation to the actual pace
of home sales, which are declining,”
he said. “The root cause is without
a doubt the severe housing shortage
that is not releasing its grip on the nation’s
housing market. What is for sale
in most areas is going under contract
very fast and in many cases, has multiple
offers. This dynamic is keeping
home price growth elevated, pricing
out would-be buyers and ultimately
slowing sales.”
The median existing-home price
for all housing types in June was
$276,900, surpassing last month as the
new all-time high and up 5.2 percent
from June 2017 ($263,300). June’s
price increase marks the 76th straight
month of year-over-year gains.
Total housing inventory at the end
of June climbed 4.3 percent to 1.95
million existing homes available for
sale, and is 0.5 percent above a year
ago (1.94 million) – the first yearover
year increase since June 2015.
Unsold inventory is at a 4.3-month
supply at the current sales pace (4.2
months a year ago).
Properties typically stayed on the
market for 26 days in June, unchanged
from the last three months and down
from 28 days a year ago. Fifty-eight
percent of homes sold in June were
on the market for less than a month.
“It’s important to note that despite
the modest year-over-year rise
in inventory, the current level is far
from what’s needed to satisfy demand
levels,” added Yun. “Furthermore,
it remains to be seen if this modest
increase will stick, given the fact that
the robust economy is bringing more
interested buyers into the market, and
new home construction is failing to
keep up.”
Realtor.com’s Market Hotness
Index, measuring time-on-the-market
data and listings views per property,
revealed that the hottest metro
areas in June were Midland, Texas;
Columbus, Ohio; Boston-Cambridge-
Newton, Mass.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and
Boise City, Idaho.
According to Freddie Mac, the average
commitment rate for a 30-year,
conventional, fixed-rate mortgage decreased
to 4.57 percent in June from
4.59 percent in May. The average
commitment rate for all of 2017 was
3.99 percent.
“Realtors throughout the country
continue to stress that there’s considerable
pent-up demand for buying a
home among the millennial households
in their market,” said Yun. “Unfortunately,
they’re just not making meaningful
ground, and continue to be held
back by too few choices in their price
range, and thereby missing out on
homeownership and wealth gains.”
continued on pg. 7
Existing-home sales subside 0.6 percent in June
/existing-home-sales
/existing-home-sales
