Featured Properties

4785 Hana Hwy Lot 4-D

Haiku, HI 96708

Paradise found! Endless possibilities and intriguing potential are what you’ll find on this generous 8-acre estate located in one of Maui’s most desirable North Shore neighborhoods.

View property

2777 S Kihei Rd J221

Kihei, HI 96753

Great opportunity- two bedroom, two bath end unit condominium at Maui Kamaole. Panoramic ocean views from the lanai, living room and kitchen.

view property

5187 Lower Honoapiilani Rd

Lahaina, HI 96761

Direct oceanfront property in the heart of Napili. This home has a front row seat to year round sunsets, crystal clear blue water, abundant ocean life, including turtles galore, and neighbor island views.

View Property

What if you could get a picture of more than just your homes current value?

What if you could see an analysis of your total investment and the extended impact of your home on your financial future?

NOW YOU CAN and ITS FREE

click here

Aloha ~

Can you believe we’re almost halfway through 2022? Seems like a good time to take a look at where we’ve been and where we’re headed. So here’s what’s happening with the real estate market nationwide and on Maui …

Trend #1: a drop in pending home sales

Unless you’ve been on an island much more remote than Maui lately , you’re probably aware that the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has risen from around 3.5% at the start of the year to around 5.6% currently.

But did you know that these mortgage rate hikes have caused decreases in pending home sales over each of the last six months? From March to April alone, for example, pending home sales fell 4%.

Trend #2: a jump in new listings

Interestingly, the dip in pending home sales seems to have inspired a new group of homeowners to become sellers. These savvy trend-watchers have realized that it might be wise to find a buyer for their home before the market really cools!

In the four-week period ending on May 15, new listings rose nearly twice as quickly nationwide as they did during the same period in 2021. And last week alone, the supply of homes for sale showed a 9% increase year-over-year. That’s the largest annual gain since Realtor.com began tracking the statistic in 2017!

Trend #3: a continuing rise in prices

What do you get when you combine 1) decades of under-building and 2) a Federal Reserve that’s motivated to control inflation? You get ongoing increases in both home prices and mortgage rates! But, we should point out that the increases are expected to be slower in the second half of 2022 than they were in the first half of the year.

Despite the recent jump in new listings, we continue to have an undersupplied housing market, with far fewer available homes than we would typically see at this time of year. And according to economists and real estate pros alike, there are still plenty of buyers out there who need a home and feel a sense of urgency to lock in a rate before they get any higher.

Keep in mind that there’s also another kind of buyer - as we mentioned in last month’s newsletter, 33% of home sales and 44% of condo sales on Maui in the first quarter of 2022 were cash transactions. And a buyer with cash in hand isn’t impacted by mortgage rate hikes at all!

Trend #4: a possible market shift in the fall/winter

Housing supply remains so low that even as some would-be buyers drop out of the market because of bigger real estate price tags and higher interest rates, we’re likely to see a seller’s market continue in the foreseeable future. Following the traditionally hot summer buying season, though, demand may finally cool down more noticeably in the fall/winter of 2022.

Now, some Maui-specific trends 🏝

Did you see Maui’s April stats on our website? Here are some highlights:

The median home price increased 19% year-over-year, to $1,155,000
The median condo price increased 23% year-over-year, to $760,000
The median price for vacant land rose 20% year-over-year, to $734,500
Kihei and Wailea/Makena had the hottest markets in April, with top dollar volumes for both homes and condos

And did you hear? In their vacation rankings for 2022–2023, U.S. News & World Report listed Maui as the fourth best place to visit in the U.S., and the third-best place to visit in the world!

The Maui News reported this week that Wailea’s hotel rates are the highest in the state, a clear sign of the area’s appeal. And according to Hawaii’s tourism department, unit occupancies and average daily rates for vacation rentals in the Kihei/Wailea and Lahaina/Kaanapali/Kapalua areas have also risen significantly year-over-year.

One last thing we want to mention to keep you in the loop: hot off the presses, the Maui County Council just approved the new property tax rates for the upcoming fiscal year. Great news - many Maui homeowners will actually see their rate decrease!

What’s the takeaway from all of this? There’s no doubt that we feel the mainland trends here on Maui - but we also have our own unique market story. We’d love to share more details with you. Contact us today!