Aloha Everyone:

 

Today is the big day!  The new St. Regis hotel in Princeville opened it's doors to the public for the first time in a year today.  Here's a link to the website which shows the amazing renovation.. St. Regis Hotel Princeville

 

Life's been a whirlwind since I've signed on with Princeville Realty.  I'm so sorry I've been behind in getting my newsletter to you.  Things should calm down now and I can get back in my groove and maybe even think up a funny story or two to tell you next month   My new office in the hotel lobby is finished and gorgeous and I can't wait until you see it.  Today, for the first time as I was sitting at my beautiful new koa wood desk from my beautiful new office, looking out at the beautiful view of the Hanalei mountains from the lobby, and I felt like the luckiest realtor in the world.  Escrows have been scarce, and business is certainly not great, but "Thank you God" that's all I can say.. thank you thank you thank you.

 

Let's try to catch up on what's been going on with Kauai Real Estate for the last few months:.  Starting with Number of Sales, we had 42 total sales in August down from 49 the month prior.  As I've mentioned many times before we've stopped freefalling and now we are bouncing along the bottom, some months up, some months down, but the numbers are usually fairly close together.  The number of houses on the island dropped in September to 23 from 27 the month prior.  Vacant land stayed even at 6 lots sold and (creepy!) so did condos at 15 sold in July and 15 in August.  North Shore condo units sold increased nicely from 3 in July to 7 in August.  North Shore Houses and condos stayed fairly steady the last two months.  East side numbers also stayed very steady.  Poipu home sale units were down from 7 to 3 this month.

 

As far as Sales Volume over the entire island we dropped a bit from the month prior $25M vs $21M overall.  Homes sales volume stayed practically even the last two months at $14M.  That's a really big drop from June when we sold $23M.  Vacant land stayed steady the last two month at around $2M, but dropped from June numbers when $3.6M sold.  Condos sales volume dropped from $8.3M in July to $5.2M in August but was steady with June's condo volume of $5.6M so not everything showed a big decrease from June numbers.  North shore home sales volume increased from last month from $4.8M to $6.1M.  North shore vacant land volume was down from $2.1M to $925K.  North shore condos had a small uptick from $2M to $3.5M.  Eastside home volume was up from last month $3.4 to $4M.  Koloa/Poipu home and condo sales volume were both way down from last month, $1.2M home from $4M, and $660K from $4.2M condo... ouch!  Did everyone decide to take their money out of Poipu and move it to the Northshore?

 

Median Sales Price is always an interesting topic... The median price for a house on Kauai ticked up just slightly in August from the month prior $450K in July to $471K in August.  So we've had two month of increasing sales after a big plunge in June from $600K to $440K.  The median price for a house this time last year was $530K, just about $100K more.  We are not far off our median price numbers for vacant land and condos from last year, which just goes to show that as far as price go not everything kept sliding in 09.  It was a very "bouncy" year, up, down, up, down on all the stats.  Maybe in 2010 things will stop bouncing and start to move up again, but oops, there I go being optimistic again... silly me!  My naysayer friends will surely email me back and admonish me for looking too much on the bright side.  Median prices on the north shore ticked up nicely from $578K to $827K.  North shore condos and vacant land stayed very steady.

 

If you are planning a trip to the island, please let me know your dates of travel and if you would like to view any properties.  There are great deals happening every day, don't miss out.  When you check out the new St. Regis, look for the Princeville Realty office right past the reception desks to the right, across from the Napali Cafe.  Look for the short little realtor with the big grin on her face.. that's me.

 

Your Island Realtor, AnnMarie