Aloha Everyone:  

We are experiencing Fall now on the island.  The sun is going down around 6:15 pm in the evening and setting way behind the mountains, no longer into the ocean.  The temps haven't changed much.  We've had some very warm days recently, but the nights are getting a just a little bit cooler as long as the trades keep blowing.  If they stop it feels like summer all over again.

 

It's a peculiar oddity on Kauai that most of the locals you ask know the exact time of the daily sunset no matter what time of year.  It's usually a such spectacular event and there's not much else to do around that time in the evening we all rush out to enjoy it.  In fact, I would say that most of our evening activities are centered around watching the sunset.  If for some reason an amazing sunset happens and I miss it for any reason I'm genuinely disappointed.  It's almost like missing a movie because you're too late and all the good seats are gone.  

 

On another note but also involving a sunset, I had dinner last night at the St. Regis hotel with Phil (who I affectionately call "My Emergency Contact".. so much better than "Significant Other", and "Boyfriend" is plain silly to call a man of his age).  His daughter Mia and her husband Bruce Irons were celebrating their one year wedding anniversary.  It was a very nice evening.  We ate at the Makana Cafe, formerly Hanalei Cafe, and sat outside overlooking the Bay.  The service was very good, food was spectacular, and the sunset did not disappoint.  My $15 glass of Hess Chardonnay was served in a real Crystal wine glass, so delicate I was actually nervous for it.  We were given complimentary glasses of nice quality champagne midway thru our dinner since we were celebrating an anniversary and a birthday, no extra charge.  Also, on two occasions a waiter brought us over little appetizer samplers made of shrimp, again no charge.   Upstairs in the "Living Room" a very good singer named "Chris" was singing contemporary rock tunes in a really slow jazzy way.  Very fun evening.  I recommend it highly if you are coming to the island.  

 

Also, I hear the massages are so good in the St. Regis Spa  it takes a good week to get off the massage table.  The massage technicians just roll people off the massage tables and put them out on stretchers and take them back into their rooms to recover.  They are THAT good.

 

Looking at Number of Sales for October we had 40 sales across the island down from 44 in August.  Total houses sold went down to 16 from 23, vacant land was down to 6 from 10, condos went up from 13 to 15.  On the north shore the number of houses sold were down to 3 from 6, down from 5 last year this time.  North shore vacant land 5 parcels sold, up from 2 in August, and 5 condos sold down from 7 in August.  Koloa/Poipu numbers were very similar to last months, hardly any change, Lihue and Kawaihau (east side) numbers also evened out to be about the same as August numbers.  Almost no change.  Overall we are down about 4.76 from last year's September sales numbers.  Interestingly, August 09 was up 4.75 from the year prior so we really starting to see some stabilization of the market.  Gone are the huge swings of June 09 over June 08, down 35%, May 09 over May 08, down 23%, January 09 over January 09, down 60%!  Ouch!!!!

 

Sales Volume showed some increase and decrease in different categories as we would suspect given the market is stabilizing.  Total Sales Volume overall stayed even $21.3M in September vs $21.2M in August.  We are down about 26% from the year prior when we sold $28M.  House sales were down slightly $14M vs $11M.  Vacant land was up considerable from $2.1M to $4.4M so that slow horse is starting to pick up speed as investors begin to scoop up the undervalued land on the island.  Condo volume was down slightly  from $5.2M to $4.9M.  Northshore home volume was down considerably from $6.1M to $2.7M.  North shore vacant land up considerably from $925K to $3.3M, and northshore condos down from $3.4M to $2.2M, but up 30% overall on the island from September 2008.  Condos are bouncing back and so is vacant land, a sure sign that the investors have decided that pricing is good and they are going to  take the plunge and get wet!  Yeah!

 

Median Sales Price for homes on the island increased from $471K in August to $532K in September, producing a 4 month upward trend on the island starting in June 2009.  Can we call it a "recovery" yet?  Maybe we should say the patient is out of the Intensive Care Unit but not out of the Hospital yet, and certainly not back on the golf course.  

 

Vacant land median prices were down slightly from $320K to $256K.. maybe that's why everyone started buying it?  Condos are up slightly from $300K to $337K.  Northshore houses down from $827K to $685K.  Condo prices were incredibly low with a median price of $275K on 5 sales!  That's down from $585K the month prior.  North shore vacant land up slightly from $462K to $550K.  East side house down slightly $445K to $414K, east side vacant land down as well $350K to $223K.  

 

Well, only about 30 minutes to sunset so I have to jet!  The clouds have that hazy kind of shape that usually makes for a colorful display.  By the way, just in case you're wondering the sun will set at 6:08 tonight...

Until next month, your Island Realtor, AnnMarie

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