Each month, my husband, a licensed Realtor, and I and the past President of the West Hawaii Association of Realtors, Lance Owens, sit down and do a Facebook live discussion about the monthly real estate statistics on my “365Kona’s I’m Moving to Hawaii and Buying a House” Facebook group. We have been offering these insights into the market as a way to educate folks who are looking at either moving to the island or buying investment or retirement property.
Last night we combined the monthly statistics with a prediction on the market for the next few months. I also had the added benefit of speaking to some of my local mortgage friends about how they see the financial market behaving over the next few months, too.
You can also see info on our “Big Island Real Estate Minute” on YouTube.
West Hawaii Housing Update for December 2019
Here is the gist of the local housing market right now:
–Homes that have been on the market for more than 30 days are experiencing price reductions right now to try and move the listing before everyone puts new homes on the market in preparation for the incoming flux of snow birds. This happens around early December each year, so keep an eye out for opportunities.
–The median price of a condo in North Kona for November 2019, according to statistics from the Hawaii Information Service, is $386,250, a 36% increase year over year. Year to date, the median price is $346,250, a 6% increase over last year at this time. A single family home in in North Kona is $627,500, a 12% decrease from last year, when the price was $719,500. However, year to date the median price is $649,000 in 2019, compared to $643,525 in 2018, a mere .85% difference.
Lance Owens stated that the housing market is just staying pretty steady in terms of pricing and inventory coming on and off the market, making Kona a bit of a sellers market, but not by much. On average, homes are going for about 10% less than asking price right now.
West Hawaii Real Estate Predictions for 2020
Lance says that he is predicting a busy home buying period during the holidays and into the first two months of 2020 as interest in buying property on Hawaii Island is on the rise now that the VOG is gone and the other islands continue to be overcrowded with housing prices higher than ours. Kona continues to outpace the other areas of the island in terms of price and desire to live here. He says that homes that are coming on the market WELL PRICED are going under contract within a few days and foresees that continuing to be the case for the next few months.
With mortgage prices continuing to be at historic lows, and mortgage professionals saying that banks are loosening up their requirements for getting a loan (hello stated income loans again) that finding available financing will keep the housing market cooking. Both Lance and the mortgage professionals I spoke to know that an election year keeps people feeling a bit uneasy and sometimes will create a “hold back” experience until the elections are over, but with everything that is happening politically, the market is doing what it’s doing, regardless.
There are people sitting on the fence right now, waiting for some huge market correction to occur. “Not likely soon” is the reply from a variety of sources.
Get Real Time Information and Listings and FREE guides
If you would like to see what is currently available on the market and want to get signed up for listing alerts, we just launched a new service this week on our 365Hawaii Real Estate website. Just send us your email address to [email protected]. We can provide you access to a mobile app to search for Hawaii homes AND send you listings as they come on the market to your email. To help you in your quest, we are also offering a FREE download of my “Insiders Guide to Buying Real Estate on Hawaii Island” OR a download of “How to Move to Kona” from December 5-February 5th, 2020 for those who sign up for this service. Simply send us an email at [email protected] and we will take care of you.
Happy Holidays!
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