Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers » Pat Strausse, RB

Cherry Blossom Festival Coming to Big Island’s Waimea Feb. 4

Pat Strausse, RB — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:54:24 +0000

With Chinese New Year behind us, the next big cultural event for the Big Island will be the annual Waimea Cherry Blossom Festival. This year, the festival will be on Saturday, February 4th in various locations around Waimea – just look for the pink banners marking site locations.

The cherry trees at Church Road should be in full bloom for this year’s festival

This year the Cherry Blossom Festival will tie in with a national event – the 100th anniversary of the planting of cherry trees along the Potomac in Washington. Seedlings were cultivated last fall for planting at the festival using seeds from the Embassy of Japan that are especially suited to Hawaii’s climate. There will be a ceremony at Church Row Park at 10:30 AM to plant a tree.

The festival will have multi-cultural performing arts, demonstrations…AND lots of ono food!

Events at This Year’s Cherry Blossom Festival:

Church Row Park

Historical Cherry Tree Display
Bonsai: The Waimea Bonyu Kai Bonsai Club offers a display and sale of bonsai.
Cooking Demos at Kamuela Hongwanji: Big Isle chefs offer cooking demonstrations with free samples.
Japanese Cultural Demos/Entertainment at Kamuela Hongwanji: Enjoy taiko drumming and learn the time-honored art of origami by Kikuko Kibe and furoshiki.
Asian Collectibles/Food Sales at Kamuela Hongwanji: Church organizations sell Asian-themed collectibles, cherry blossom note cards, cherry tree seedlings, cherry blossoms in mugs, and Asian foods.
Martial Arts demonstrations throughout the day.
Food Sales at Imiola Church: Saimin, cherry ice cream, and local delicacies.

Parker Ranch Center

Festival Entertainment Stage: In the back parking lot. Opening ceremonies at 9 a.m, bon dance, Kumu Hula Michael Pang’s Hula Halau Ka Noeau.
Craft Fair: Over 100 crafters inside center and in the back parking lot, cherry tree seedlings for sale in back parking lot.
Mochi Tsuki Pounding: Help pound mochi using 500 pounds of rice with the Kona Hongwanji Mission outside the Fireside Food Court.

Mochi pounding is great fun to watch…and after watching, be sure to join the line for samples

Mana Christian Ohana Church (Formerly Kahilu Town Hall)

Ka Hui Kapa Apana O Waimea’s Festival of Quilts: Show by six clubs.
Car Show: Hamakua side of parking lot.
Firehouse Gallery Art Demos/Exhibition: Waimea Arts Council (WAC) presents a members’ invitational show with a cherry blossom theme.

Parker School

Waimea Town Market and Performing Arts, Open 8AM to 1 PM

Paniolo Heritage Center at Historic Pukalani Stables

Paniolo Kepani-Hawaii’s Japanese Cowboys, Cowboy breakfast featuring Paniolo Loco Moco, a Japanese cowboy exhibit, talk story sessions by Paniolo Preservation Society featuring Japanese and Hawaiian cultural practices; Big Island Brewhaus hand-crafted beers from 11 a.m. until the kegs run dry.

Kamuela Liquors

Sake Tasting: Noon-3 p.m.

With all of this to see and experience, plan on making it a day of fun in Waimea. Just one of the reasons why: Lucky I live Waimea!

I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Big Island is Hawaii’s Most Affordable Island for Homes and Condos

Pat Strausse, RB — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:54:59 +0000

The Hawaii Association of Realtors (HAR) just released a statewide recap of 2011 sales for all the Realtor boards around Hawaii. This analysis lists out average sales prices for homes and condos. The Big Island of Hawaii leads all the other islands with both the lowest priced homes at just $242,500 and condos at an average price of $225,900.

This home (MLS# 250786) listed at just $249,000 is an example of the great real estate values on the Big Island.

HAR 2011 Stats by Island

There really is a home for anyone and everyone here on the Big Island. You will find an incredible variety of homes on the Big Island ranging from sub $100,000 homes on an acre in the Puna and Kau districts up to multimillion dolllar oceanfront estates in Kukio on the west coast. There is the same type of variety found in condos, although the vast majority of condos are found on the west side of the island in either Kona, Waikoloa or the resorts.

Oh, and the Big Island also has the most extreme scenery found in Hawaii, with the only actively flowing volcano to the common sight of snow capped mountains. Where else can you ski atop Mauna Kea in the morning, surf in the afternoon and then finish the day by viewing one of our awesome sunsets from your lanai!

I love the Big Island! Aloha.

December (2011) Sales Figures For Waikoloa Condos

Pat Strausse, RB — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:45:26 +0000

This Waikoloa condo for sale (MLS# 242881) is one of the Villages newest condos

Waikoloa Village condo sales ended the year in December with a fairly slow sales month with just 3 sales for the month, and the average sales price was below $100,000 at $90,000. Both of these figures are a drop from November numbers of 5 sales averaging $144,100.

Here is a look at December sales for Waikoloa Village condos:

December sales took place in just two condo projects – Elima Lani and Fairway Terrace. These two entry level priced condo projects were by far the sales number leaders in 2011 condo sales. There was just one distressed property sale (a REO) accounting for just 1/3 of December sales numbers.

I’ll be back next week to take a look back at the condo sales for the year of 2011 in Waikoloa Village. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Waikoloa Village Home Sales For December 2011

Pat Strausse, RB — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:30:31 +0000

This Waikoloa home for sale (MLS# 250505) is one of many newer homes built in Waikoloa in the mid 2000′s

Waikoloa Village home sales for December 2011 ended the year with a slow down in the number of homes sold with just 4 homes selling in December. This is down quite a bit from many months in 2011 that had almost double that number of sales. The average sales price was fairly high at $350,875 – and was just about the same as November’s average sales price of $352,267.

Here is a look at December home sales in Waikoloa Village:

The number of homes that were either a short sale or bank owned property accounted for 50% of the sales in December, a fairly low percentage for Waikoloa Village where this type of sales is often closer to 2/3 of all home sales.

I’ll be back next week with a review of home sales for the year of 2011. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

December Inventory Numbers For Waikoloa Village Homes and Condos

Pat Strausse, RB — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:00:39 +0000

A good way to look at the real estate for sale in Waikoloa Village—homes and condos—is to look at the inventory numbers of properties for sale. An analysis of this inventory will tell the number of days to sell this inventory based on recent sales numbers. In real estate, 6 months is a neutral market with under six months being a seller’s market and over being a buyer’s market.

This home MLS# 250585) has the views and tropical landscaping Waikoloa is known for

Waikoloa Village Homes

Looking first at the inventory of homes for sale in Waikoloa, at this time in December, there are 54 homes listed for sale. Sales prices range from $179,900 for a major fixer upper to $975,500 for a 5-bedroom with a pool. In the past year, there have been 81 sales for homes in Waikoloa. Dividing out the number of sales per month with current homes for sale gives a time to sell the inventory of 8 months. This number is up from the inventory number of 7 months in November.

Waikoloa Village Condos

There are now 35 condos listed for sale in Waikoloa. Prices run from a low of just $69,900 for a one-bedroom in Fairway Terrace to a high of $419,000 for a Waikoloa Fairways unit. In the past year, there have been 64 sales for village condos with an average sales price of $134,989. Doing the math, Waikoloa Village condos now have an inventory of 6.5 months. This number is down from November’s time to sell of 7.8 months.

I’ll be back in January to have a review of Waikoloa real estate sales in 2011. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Pat Strausse, RB
808.960.5745
Pat@HawaiiLife.com

November Home Sales For Waimea, Hawaii

Pat Strausse, RB — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:30:54 +0000

November home sales for the Big Island’s Waimea were quite varied as they ranged from a home in Vacationland, sold at $99,900, to a large home in the premier area of Kamuela Heights that sold at $699,000. These two homes also showed the wide range in days on market running from one day to just under a year.

This Waimea home for sale (MLS# 244550) is a great example of the pastoral setting of Waimea

Here is a look at all the November home sales in Waimea:

These seven sales had an average sales price of $362,629—that’s down from the average price of $448,117 with 12 sales in October.

I’ll be back in early January to take a look back at sales for the year of 2011 in Waimea. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Pat Strausse, RB
808.960.5745
Pat@HawaiiLife.com

November Sales Figures For Waikoloa Village Homes

Pat Strausse, RB — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:15:17 +0000

Homes for sale in Waikoloa Village for November showed a similar number of sales as previous months, but the average sales price increased quite a bit from October numbers.

Here is a look at the November homes sold in Waikoloa Village:

November had a total of six sales if you include a sale in Paniolo Estates. This is the same as October’s sales number of six sales, but the average sales price rose quite a bit—from $252,817 in October up to $352,267. However, if you look at the sales you’ll see this is largely due to one sale at $775,000—a number like this will bring up the average significantly.

As with condo sales in Waikoloa Village, the majority of sales are still short sales and REO’s, accounting for 4 out of 6 sales, or a whopping 66% of sales.

One thing I see that is interesting is that the majority of November sales were homes that had been on the market a fairly short time—except for one sale, all of these homes had been on the market for around two months or less. To me, this shows if you price a home in line with what buyers are willing to pay, you can still sell your home—even in the market of today.

I’ll be back next week to look at the homes for sale inventory levels in Waikoloa. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Pat Strausse, R(B)
808.960.5745
Pat@HawaiiLife.com

November Sales Figures For Waikoloa Village Condos

Pat Strausse, RB — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:27:44 +0000

Waikoloa Village condos for sale showed fairly slow November sales numbers as well as a downturn in average sales price. Here are the condo sales stats for November:

As you can see, there were 5 sales in November, up a bit from the total of just 4 sales in October. The average sales price for November, however, was down slightly to $144,010 from October’s $156,500. Days on market for November was much lower at 132.6 days.

Condos that were either a short sale or a REO were again the majority of sales at 3 out of 5, or 60% of the month’s sales. In looking at the condos in escrow at this time, there are only 9 condos in the works, so most likely the next couple of months’ numbers will stay close to 5 sales. The average price may fall some though as 5 of these future sales are all prices listed at under $100,000.

I’ll be back next week to look at the inventory levels for Waikoloa condos. I love the Big Island! Aloha.

Pat Strausse, R(B)
808.960.5745
pat@HawaiiLife.com

November Inventory of Waimea Homes For Sale

Pat Strausse, RB — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:30:23 +0000

In looking at Waimea homes for sale, one useful tool is to look at the inventory of homes for sale. If there is more than a six month supply of homes, it is considered a buyer’s market; if there is an inventory of homes for sale under six months, that is considered a seller’s market.

Currently, there are 79 homes for sale in Waimea with an average time on market of 208 days. The average sales price of these homes is $532,265. There is a fairly small number of distressed properties for sale at this time, a total of 13 REO’s or short sales.

In the past year there have been 104 homes sold at an average price of $414,163. Of these sales, there were 33 distressed sales—or about 32% of the total sales. It is interesting to compare this percentage with Waikoloa Village where the percentage of distressed sales is quite a bit higher at 65%—about double the number in Waimea.

With 104 sales, the average number of homes sold per month is 8.6 homes. If there are now 79 homes for sale, the number of months needed to sell this inventory is 9.1 months. This inventory level is down slightly from October’s level of 9.5 months. We will soon be in the busy time of home selling, starting around Christmas and through Easter. It will be interesting to see if this trend of lower selling time continues into next year’s busy season.

I love the Big Island! Aloha.

November Inventory of Waikoloa Village Homes For Sale

Pat Strausse, RB — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:00:17 +0000

In looking at Waikoloa Village homes for sale, one useful tool is to look at the inventory of homes for sale. If there is more than a six month supply of homes, it is considered a buyer’s market; if there is an inventory of homes for sale under six months, that is considered a seller’s market.

In the past year, there have been 85 homes sold in the village with an average sales price of $301,831. Out of these 85 sales, 55 homes have been either a short sale or a REO—or about 65% of the sales have been a distressed sale. (Distressed sales are either short sales or REO’s.) You can see that this type of sale has become more of the norm for sales over a “straight sale” directly with the seller, which does not require bank approval.

At this time, there are 50 homes listed for sale in Waikoloa with an average listing price of $408,569. There is a rather large price range in these homes going from a low of $179,900 for a real fixer upper to a high of $975,000 for a five-bedroom home with a pool.

With just 85 homes sold in the past year, the average number of homes to change hands each month is about 7.1 homes per month. Doing the math on this gives a current inventory of 7 months to sell all the homes in Waikoloa Village.

Last month, the inventory level was at 7.5, down from 8.1 in September. So, at this point, it is still a buyer’s market for homes in Waikoloa Village, but the recent trend has been a reduction in inventory levels, showing some growing strength in sales.

I love the Big Island! Aloha.