Kauai real estate sales

The Kauai real estate market saw mixed signals in the most recent tracking period, with median sales prices declining while sales volume rallied considerably. The average sales price of a Kauai home for sale was $500,000, marking a decline of approximately three percent from the $515,000 measured in March 2010. This was a significantly better performance than the rest of the neighbor islands, especially the Big Island, which experienced a median sales price decline of about twenty percent. Condominiums on Kauai fared considerably more poorly than the detached single family home portion of the market. In contrast to homes, the median sales price for condos dropped from $345,000 in March 2010 to $265,000 in March 2011. There were 35 single family homes sold in the most recent tracking period, marking a substantial volume increase of nearly fifty percent relative to the 24 properties sold in March 2010. In contrast, there were only 24 condos sold in March 2011, compared to 29 sold a year ago. The median price of these properties was $265,000, marking a decrease of approximately twenty three percent relative to $345,000 last year. At the same time, the sample size used to determine the median price was comparatively small, meaning that a few anomalous sales could easily throw off the figure by several thousand dollars. It also remains to be seen how exactly the Kauai economy will react to the continuing crisis in Asia and the skyrocketing price of oil, especially in terms of those events' effect on tourism.

The high quantity of so called 'short sales' and foreclosures also help to explain the depressed median sales prices observed on nearly all the neighbor islands. Across the Big Island and Maui especially, there were a number of distressed property sales which were sold for substantially lower prices than the rest of the homes on the market. On Kauai, there is still a 'shadow inventory' of distressed properties that is likely to keep prices depressed for a considerable amount of time. Until these homes are cleared from the market, median prices will remain artificially low.