Aloha everyone, what a summer it has been. I have been away from my monthly blogs the past couple months, but for good reasons, I promise. I was fortunate enough to join a competitive paddling team. I was able to paddle for the Kai Opua Canoe Club out of Kamakahonu Beach. It was a very fruitful season as I was able to try something completely new as well as meet a lot of new friends and establish almost a whole new community and form new bonds with my teammates as well as other paddlers. The season also saw success come my way as I was able to be a part of the Novice B Mixed (3 men and 3 women) state championship crew, the races were held at Lahaina Beach Park in Maui, HI. We ended up taking first place across all teams from all the Islands.
Believe it or not, being from Nebraska, I had never paddled before this year. It was awesome to put in the work and really see and feel the improvement throughout the season. The season is not quite over as I will be participating in a couple long distance races here for about the next month or so.
Now back to business, I wanted to take a minute to shoot you all straight about the current market here on the big Island. As you may or may not know the Fed is set to meet again on September 16th, with a verdict on a possible new interest rate coming on September 17th. The interest rates play a huge role on home prices as well as the housing market inventory and turnover. Interest rates going down tend to have an inverse effect on home prices, so when rates go down the prices will go up. When interest rates go down the number of homes being transacted on in the market will also go up. Usually more homes are coming onto the market as well as more homes being sold. Currently the interest rates have hovered right around the mid 6%.
Home prices have been dropping steadily over the past two months or so. Today is not the day of listing your home and selling it the same week (in the majority of cases). I have noticed a large amount of price reductions as well as a majority of homes selling for less than the asking price. I would say that we are in a pseudo-buyers market. I add some hesitancy to that because the interest rates are still high. Now if you are able to feasibly pay cash or mostly cash I do think now is a great time to dive into the market.