This week I wanted to check back in with where the market is at right now. I decided to do a little residential market update through the National Association of Realtors Database of properties. My thoughts were reassured and the database agreed with me in signifying that we are still very much in a seller’s market. The first statistics that popped off of the page was *that properties transacted in the month of October were sold at an average of 97.7% of the listing price. This statistic would agree with and back up what we are seeing now as we are continuing to see the price of homes rise month to month as they are listed in the same neighborhood. Another statistic that I found to be rather powerful was that the average time for the property to be listed is roughly 59 DAYS! 59 days… that is two months, when broken down further that Is under 9 weeks that these homes are on the market.
These properties are metaphorically flying off the shelves. Crazy! But, does this mean that you should sell your property? Truth be told there is no one who can answer that question other than you yourself. While yes you are going to be selling in this hot market, which to be honest has a large amount of cash buyers, you are also going to potentially be buying into the same market. A great idea if you are thinking about downsizing or diversifying your property.
If you recall back to one of the first blogs that I put out, the second blog to be exact, I reviewed the Hawaii Housing and Economic Report from the year 2022. In that report it was found that property on Hawaii Island, subject to area and neighborhood, appreciated by about 15% over a 5 year period. Ultimately making your property in Hawaii a great way to grow wealth over a period of time, while also being presented by a vehicle that can provide cash flow to an individual or organization.
An example of this appreciation: I recently spoke with a gentleman who bought a home in Ali’i Heights in 2017 for about $400,000. Needless to say that home would be listed for about a million dollars now.. Maybe more!
Another interesting statistic was that the total money volume of the market in Kona is $179,037,390. The number isn’t what is interesting, but rather the fact that this number is 87% higher than the month of September. The number of homes is actually relatively consistent (only an 18% increase from September to October). To me this says that “higher dollar homes are on the market. This trend has actually been consistent through all of 2023.
Big takeaways? One thing that popped into my mind was the timeframe in which properties are leaving the market. In turn making every day and hour matter. Get yourself some representation. If properties are only lasting on the market for 59 days then by the time the property hits the larger self-service real estate platforms like zillow and redfin then you potentially have lost some days to get in and look at the home. If you lose 14 days because you are not working with an agent who has real time access to the property then there is a good possibility that there may already be an offer submitted on the property!