Greetings everyone, amazing to think that we are already almost through the second month of 2025. To start with a couple personal items I had a great start to my month. I was able to visit Winter Park, Colorado earlier this month for a few days. My best friend lives in Denver, so I flew in and we headed up to the mountain. We were fortunate enough to have prime conditions as we were up there while 18 inches of fresh snow fell in 36 hours. (According to some of the workers there this was the first time that it had snowed there in about 3 weeks!). The views were second to none and it was beautiful. Growing up in the midwest and then moving to Hawaii I have a perspective of both climates and now living in a tropical environment it is super nice to visit the snow and cold. *Disclaimer* as I say that I am well aware that back home where I grew up it is -30 Fahrenheit with the wind chill. I cannot complain at all with the ability to travel and see such beautiful places and go spend time on a mountain with people that mean so much to me. Now if I were to bring up draw backs on the experience I must say the air sure was thin that high up and you would catch me in a full body shiver on about every lift back up the mountain.
I am now back in the saddle here on the Big Island, work is in full swing both in Real Estate and at the Restaurant. My plans for this season is to try and enjoy what I have been given here on the Big Island and that currently is great waves. Winter would be surf season here and I am behind on my surfing. I am going to try to make it back into the water as much as I can (responsibility of course).
On a more serious note I wanted to give a little update on the real estate market here on the Big Island… It has been a little while since I gave y’all a little check up on that. One of the most fascinating statistics that I saw was that the median home price sold on the Island was up 39.2% in January 2025 as compared to January 2024. The total number of homes sold was also up 90%. What is interesting about these numbers both from a mathematical perspective and a boots on the ground perspective is that I have noticed this as well but with a little twist. January as well as into February up to this point have been busy times compared to last year. I do believe that this is across all facets on the island. Just driving through town there seemingly are more people around and in the shops and restaurants. According to HawaiiGuide.Com the Big Island is projected to see a 3% increase in tourism this year. How does this relate to the real estate market would be the question, right? Now my best guestimate based on what I see and notice through my daily inventory checks would be that there are more residential homes selling as a by-product of price adjustments within the market. To set an example, there was a house listed last year in February. This home was listed at $1.25M. It was a beautiful house in a renowned gated community very close to town. To give a little bit of background on the comparable sales in this area, this was the first home within that subdivision that was priced over a million dollars. Was this house worth that price? The market would’ve said no, being that the home sat on the market for several months. That same house just sold in January at a new price of $1.125M. A congratulations is in order to the sellers of this home, and long story short this single home essentially reset this subdivisions market as I now have seen multiple other homes in this neighborhood go onto the market for over $1M.
The data also backs up my guestimate, with the sale-to-list price being down about 1% from last year as well as the number of price reductions being up 19%. In conclusion I think we are seeing more inventory moving, by no means are we in a bull market, but there are more homes selling as a result of prices settling in a middle ground. Now take the term “lowered prices” with a grain of salt as these prices are lower relative to the spikes that were seen in 2022.
I will leave us here and I bid you a fantastic upcoming March, I want to thank you all for the time you took to read this and the various kind words whenever I see anyone of you who reads out in public. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice and have a fantastic rest of your day!