North Kona
There were 33 residential sales in North Kona last month. July of 2010 saw 23 and June saw 41, so we are down a little bit from earlier in the summer. We saw 30 condos sold, up from 23 last July and close to the 33 we had in June. The median price for residential sales was $353,000 which was substantially from July last year when we had a median of $450,000. The median of June was $399,000. We will need to see if next month recovers and July was just an aberration. The median price in condos was also way down from last year. July had a median condo price of $137,000 which is one of the lowest numbers we have seen in a long time. Last July that number was $220,000 and June had a median of $211,000. Looking at the individual sales (I felt that number needed some serious investigation) we had a lot of sales of very small, old condo units. These are units in complexes that had very few sales in recent months, and all of the sudden had many sales. The effect was to drive up the units sold for the month, while driving down the median. So, I think we should not get worried about the low median price of condos, but we should also not get overly excited on the units sold.
South Kohala
South Kohala looks more stable right now. There were 17 residential sales compared to 16 last July and 19 in June. Year to date, the South Kohala market has seen a 40% increase in units sold compared to last year. The condo market in Kohala is also stable as well with 18 sales compared to 18 last year and 16 in June. Year to date, condos sold in South Kohala are up over 40%. The median price of residential units sold was $370,000, about even with last year when we had a median of $362,500 and up from $345,000 in June. The median condo price was $372,250 which was down from $399,500 last year and $462,500 in June.
What’s Ahead
The next few months should be interesting. With the recent financial downgrade of the US credit rating, and changes in the foreclosure process, we will likely see a pause in purchasing. There is a good amount of foreclosure inventory on the way as many banks have decided to do only judicial foreclosures. These take more time and as a result, there are more foreclosures in the “pipeline” which should start hitting the market in 6-9 months (that’s the rumor at least). So, while there may be a decrease in demand due to changes in the financial market, there will also be a pause in the supply. Hopefully that pause will alleviate a severe market decrease.