Waikoloa Condo Inventory – Is It a Buyer's or Seller's Market?

This month, I’m going to start something new in my ongoing look at Waikoloa condo sales. In addition to my monthly recap of real estate sales for condos, I’m going to take a look at where the current inventory of available condos for sale is in relationship to the number of sales last year. I did this last month for homes in Waikoloa Village, and found it overall to be a buyer’s market.

The real estate industry has a standard mark of a 6 month inventory being the dividing line between a buyer’s market and a seller’s market. A seller’s market is considered any market where the inventory for sale is less than a 6 month supply. A buyer’s market is more than a six month supply of inventory.

Real estate can vary from location to location…from price range to price range, and in this case, from condo complex to complex. There is a complex right now in Waikoloa that is actually a seller’s market—if you’ve followed my blogs you can probably guess which complex it is.

Waikoloa Villas is one of several condos located on the golf course that also has ocean and sunset views

So, first step is how many condos sold last year in Waikoloa? The total sales for 2010 was 34 condos for Waikoloa Village, or an average sales of 2.8 a month. This really does reflect last years ups and downs of months with no sales and months with 7 sales.

When March started, the inventory of condos available for sale stood at 35 condos. It doesn’t take too much math to see that we are at just over a one year’s inventory of condos for sale in Waikoloa. At the one year mark of inventory that is a very strong buyer’s market.

As you have probably heard, all real estate is local. In this case, I’m going very local and looking at just one condo complex’s inventory. Elima Lani sold 13 units last year, or 1.1 condos a month. Right now, there are only 4 Elima Lani units on the market for sale. This is only a 3.6 month supply of inventory, so this is a fairly strong seller’s market! That’s right, at this time Elima Lani is really a seller’s market due to its low inventory of condos for sale.

I’m providing this information because I use it and find it very helpful. I think it will benefit buyers in preparing their offers and sellers in looking at their listing prices. One thing about inventory is…it’s a moving target that will change as we go through the year. It will be interesting to see what happens this year.

I love the Big Island!