East Hawaii Real Estate Market Update- Market Staying Steady

Aloha. Hey, it's Julie Zealand's 365 Hawaii with Real, and we are doing the Zoom portion of the East Hawaii Upstate with Nui. And Nui also is with Real, and we are giving her a chance to actually come to us from Chicago. So tell them what you're doing in Chicago. Before we get the stats, they can see that you're a traveling leader. So I'm the incoming president for Hawaii Island Realtors 2026, and they sent me here to learn how to be a leader. So I'm going to be here till next week in leadership training. So I hope you can see my face because I wanted you guys to see the beautiful city instead of the hotel room. For us, it's something totally different. We usually see palm trees behind people's houses, you know, faces when they see the skyscrapers of Chicago. It's pretty awesome. Right down there too. So it's kind of a neat view from here. And I just got off the plane, like literally just got off the plane. So I'm still in my plane outfit and plane hair. And so you guys who are watching this, I want you guys to give extra kudos to Newey for taking time out of her time to be actually doing something else to give you guys the update on what's happening with the real estate market in East Hawaii. So let's get to the numbers. We have, we were talking before we got on the camera that West Hawaii twice seemed to be having different experiences in the market. And we'll talk to you guys about that afterwards, but go ahead and tell them what's going on right now in the market with the June numbers. Okay. So you did mention that your side of the Island saw a steep drop and I'm looking at the Island wide update and property sold. There were, was a almost 15% decrease in volume Island wide, but I, on our side of the Island, we're not really feeling it like that much. So right now in South Hilo, there are 99 active listing same as last month days on market average is up to one 41 from one 25 last month. And I did, when I was pulling the stats, I did notice days on market were in all the areas are kind of going up, not kind of, they are, they are going up. And price range in Hilo right now is two 60 on the low end, two 68 to 23 million. The one that's active for two 68 is kind of misleading. I've been getting calls on that because it looks like, wow. Cause it's actually a, a, you know, a really shack. It's a home that no, no, it's not a shack at all. That, that's why I'm getting a lot of calls on it. It's, it's a nice, it's a normal house for two 68. But the thing is when you read it, it's 50% interest that you're buying in this house. So that's the patch. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm getting called on the MLS that you're buying a house. It's has a 50% interesting thing. I even heard of that. Apparently. Yeah. I've never done one of those sales. I have heard of them before. I, this is a, I think this is the first time I've seen it on the MLS. I've heard other people who have done stuff like that, but I, yeah. And anyways, I've been getting a lot of calls on it. Yeah. Well, you have to like the person you're going into business with. Cause that's what that is. It's going into business with somebody and buying a piece of property. So. Yeah, totally. And how do you decide who's going to do what for maintenance and all of that? And then what if, how do you, the agreement on what, if you want to sell, you know, that, yeah, those things kind of, you have to think about all those. Yeah. So it's a total going into business. You know, not to go off topic. Like I always do. I actually was hired to sell a third of an interest in a beautiful million dollar house on the Cahala coast because one of the investors wanted out and trying to sell an interest in somebody else's house, because then you're looking at who gets Christmas, who, you know, and so, yeah, so it's, it's, it's, it's doable. Sadly with that house ended up going into foreclosure because I couldn't figure it out. And so so that's an interesting opportunity for somebody, but that there's a lot of things to consider on those kinds of transactions. So interesting. Tell me how that goes. But your $20 million probably still seems to be on sale. The $23 million property that's been apart for a while. Yeah, it went off and then they put it back on. Well, it's because it's $23 million in Hilo. It is absolutely gorgeous, but that's a very, very specific buyer. I feel like that's a specific buyer anywhere because not a lot of people are just like, here's $23 million for our property, but especially in Hilo. Okay. So the median in Hilo is 800,000. That's been that 800 for some months now, the active median price. And I just want to say, I'm not going to go over the under contracts in Hilo right now, but the $12 million home did go under contract. So that is, and that one was the one that got reduced for, I think that one was listed at 23 million a few months ago and they reduced it to 12 and it went under contract very quickly. That's actually one of my really good friends listing. So I need to tell her, call her and tell her congratulations. But it, that one's 792 acres. It's a four bed, five bath home on 792 acres under contract. Yeah. Under contract for 12 million. Okay. So sold properties in July in Hilo, there were 23 that sold last year in July. There were 25. So not, not much different. It's, we have a stable market in Hilo. It seems so. We're not, it's not changing too much. It's not changing too much. We're, and we keep getting more million dollar listings on, on the market. So that's, that's interesting. I forgot to check how many there were the other day, but as of like the week before, there were 32 homes over a million. So almost one third of the inventory active inventory was over a million in Hilo. So right now the, so for last month, July sold price range was 150 to 1.2 million. The one that was 150,000 was, I think it's a teardown in a little area called Pauka'a village. And it was 5,200 square foot lot. So very small lot and teardown for 150, which actually I feel like that is actually not a bad price. Cause that's Lava Zone 8. Pauka'a is Lava Zone 8. They go over the singing bridge and it's, um, and then over the bridge to Honolii or that crosses over Honolii. And right when you pass that bridge, that's Pauka'a on the left. People want to know where these little towns are. When we, when we bring them up, someone said, I'm completely lost when you use these terms of like these towns in Hawaii. So I'm glad that you're telling people kind of what to look for and where it's at. So, yeah. So there you go. So if you know where the singing bridges is North of Hilo. Honolii is the most popular surfing beach in, on the East side of the Island, maybe even on the entire Island and Kona is probably Banyan. It's right past Honolii. So you could look up Honolii and see where Pauka'a is if you are curious about that. But that's where most people live. Or if I wouldn't say most people, when I was growing up as a kid, all the surfer boys and girls, a lot of them lived in that little neighborhood and then we would walk to the beach together. So those are my memories of Pauka'a. Okay. Moving along. Sorry, got kind of stuck on that one. And then the high end was 1.2 million in South Hilo last month. And that was in a gated community called Pepekeo Point. From downtown Hilo, you're probably driving about 12 minutes to Pepekeo. Community is right on the water, but this community is right on the water is gated and everything. So that one was a two bedroom on three and a half acres. So it does have larger lots in that neighborhood. Days on market to sail the average days on market South Hilo is 48 it actually went down in Hilo this month. So I just said that days on market were going up, but in Hilo it was a market to sale actually went down just a little bit, 48 from 57, but, but here's what's going on too. Okay. So this is what I also am seeing. I'd said that there's a lot more listings over a million, but there's also a lot more listings under 500 that are coming on the market. As well. And so those ones are selling very quickly and so that's what's going on with the days on market there. And, and the sales under 500 are generally older homes on smaller lots and needing some renovation or at least significant updates. Oh, okay. But if you're looking for affordable housing, there's more on the market now than there was in the last few months that are under 600. Yes. Yes. I don't, it's weird. Cause I, I was trying to figure that out. I just, because you know, I had buyers looking in the lower price ranges before they just couldn't break in. So then they look out in Puna instead. And you probably still, if you're looking for a home that doesn't need renovation and all of that, you probably still want to go to Puna because these homes need a lot of renovations. But yeah, there, there's a lot of them are starting to come on the market under 500. But older, like 1950 between 1950s and 1970s, I would say. Yeah. And there's a lot of those kinds of houses on the market in Hilo, right? They don't have brand new. Well, there's a, most of Hilo is older homes. Yeah. There's only a few neighborhoods that have some newer homes and then those are always 900 plus, I would say. Active listings in Puna, there's 367 this month versus 393. And the average days on market is 117 versus 118 price range in Hilo of active listings are 25,000 to 1.98 million. It's that same Nanawali cabin that we talked about last time is the $25,000 one. And also the same Opihikau property for 1.9 million, five acres with two homes and a large garage and a actually in the ground pool. So Nanawali and Opihikau are both in lava zones too. And Nanawali is just it's right around Pahoa town. So if you know where Pahoa town is, it's right near there. And then Opihikau is maybe you have to drive maybe another 10 minutes ish to get there South. Right. So you're going towards Kalapana? Yes. Towards Kalapana. Okay. Yeah. For those who don't know Kalapana seems to be at the very, very end of Puna where people actually live. So you're really far out there. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And both feel kind of like another world. So you have to really like that type of country lifestyle. It's a country beach lifestyle. It's beautiful out there though. You've not been there. I'm guessing. I've driven to Kalapana but I don't know that that maybe one of these days you and me and Eric have to go out there and shoot some of these other far off places, because we've only done the videos of like HPP, Fork Atlantic States right there in that area, but not really the far, far ones. But also the far, far ones, again, talk about unique experiences. A lot of people don't realize that it's really remote. And it is. And it's in the Slava zone too. So it's just, it's a different vibe, but maybe just show people kind of what that looks like. But it's definitely, it's different. It's different than even, you know, like Kalapana is out there in the middle of nowhere near a lava field. Hilo is a city. Okay. Chicago's a city. Hilo on our island because we only have like two, that's a city. I think because you live in that area, when people are watching this, they're getting more of a flavor of what life is like there by listening to these stories that you tell that because people don't know, right. They don't know that people talk about fishing more than they talk about their new Mercedes Benz or that women say, you know, have you tried a new Hawaiian designer where we're not saying let's go to Nordstrom and find out a hundred different choices that we have in dresses. It's a different, it is. It's more, and I want to tell people, it's a rural lifestyle. I didn't even know what that meant when I, before I moved here. You know what though? I was talking to some people about this. They said they do want to move away from like Los Angeles, San Francisco, big metropolis is like, let's say Seattle. And they want a simpler, more laid back lifestyle. And that's what you can find in East Hawaii, right? It's so it is. I really miss the city. I'm really excited to be here right now because I, I love city. It gives me energy, but it is one thing that I love about Hilo and we were just talking about Puna is well, I rarely put on makeup. And if I do, it's very, not a lot, you know? And I just, you don't really ever have to get dressed up. There's not a lot of pressure on like what purse you're wearing or what car you're driving or that type of thing. What shoes do you have on? There's that doesn't really, nobody really cares too much about that. And so that feels a lot more relaxing, but yeah, your Amazon packages. I ordered some pants a couple of weeks ago to come on this trip. And guess what? They just, I got an email saying that they just arrived today. Yeah. In fact, somebody just asked me, cause they want to be a farmer in Hawaii Island. They're coming from Texas. And she's like, Oh, well I like when things show up. So how fast do things show up on Amazon? And Eric was like, Oh, I you're lucky to get into with a week. And they both were like, what? It doesn't show up within like 24 hours. Nothing shows up here in 24 hours. You can't even get FedEx here for 24 hours. So maybe if you, cause she said, well, about refrigerated medication, I'm like, if you pay a fortune, they can do overnight shipping. And so it's going to get on a plane and you're going to pay a fortune for that. But for the most things that you try, you're not going to see it. In fact, I ordered a stuff and threw it up and when it finally arrives, it's like, Oh, surprise, I got something new to wear. Cause I can't show up at any time. It's actually going to be necessary. And like you're going on a business trip and you need that stuff. And this is what happens sometimes you miss what you were going to wear. Because you're okay. Well, hopefully 10 days is long enough. You can count on Apple though. I, and I know I'm not sponsored by Apple or whatever, but Apple, you can count on them. They're always like two days. Bam. Good to note. So the life in Opehikau is even slower over there. Who cares if you even have shoes on? You probably don't need them. And so there is some farming and things going on. My one friend has a bee, has a bunch of bees and cows on her property on Opehikau. So cows out of pee cow. So that's kind of the lifestyle over there. People are kind of protective of what's going on around them. And so when we had another listing over there and we did have, you know, a neighbor come out and start kind of quizzing the person that I was showing the property to, because, you know, it's just such a, it's so far out there in the country that people are like, do we really want this person living next door to us? So there's some of that going on out there. And well, I'm interested again, these people, they go, we want to be far away from everybody. I'm like, and then I go, we don't like people. We want to be far away from people. I'm like, well, there's places on this Island that definitely you can get away from everybody. You can go off and go to Hamakua coast or go to this part of the Island and just say, and so if you're with other people who don't want to be with other people and then you move next door, they want to make sure that they're going to be able to even like, if you're acres away, yeah. Yeah. Like who are, who are you? Yeah, no, totally. For active listings in Puna is 400,000 and it was 400,000 last month too. So, and then sold properties was exactly the same in Puna as this July of 25, there were exactly the same amount of sales as July 24. So our side of the Island is really not seeing that big drop. Like you were. Yeah. Yeah. Who don't didn't get a chance to watch the West way update. Most people who like East way don't watch West way. Um, but, uh, we're, um, Kona single family home sales saw a 70% drop in sales in June. And so that is like a big screeching halt on buying properties like in, um, you could have called tourist economy, like bus to white, where in East to why it looks like, cause again, I'm totally different. We're totally tourist driven more like, you know, resort homes, things like that. Second homes, uh, condos, um, where Easter, why obviously is more where people live full time. And it shows that what comes up comes down where West, who I also saw a huge increase in prices during the last three years. Um, because a lot of people were leaving the West coast and coming in, buying and investing in West West, I mean, West white. So you're showing that, again, a lot of different communities who didn't have that crazy up or not also experiencing more of the down, right? Yeah. Well, and our market is more local than, you know, there's not people coming in like you as much like your side. So we have a lot of houses in the West coast for cash and then coming over and buying million dollar houses for cash. And that is not the, that's not what's driving East Hawaii. Right. But you know what? That's funny because typically the buyers who can afford the million dollars and over are not from Hawaii. And so, and now I'm seeing a lot like one third of our Hilo market or active market is million dollar million. Right. So what's going on? I guess, guess we will see how it goes. Do you want to know what the price range of the solds are in, in Puna? 37,000 on the low end. And that's in a neighborhood called black sand beach. That's close to Kalapana and that's a starter cabin. It's off grid unpermitted in love zone two and on a 7,700 square foot lot. And on the high end it's a 757 that was our listing that we did the video in. Oh yeah. Okay. Well that was the highest sale price sale in Puna. And that was on 27th in HPP four bedrooms studio upstairs. It was the gate on it, a workshop on one acre. So, um, median sales price in Puna was three 97 and the sales to current price ratio median, uh, 90 almost 99. Oh, okay. So people got what they wanted for their house. Okay, good. Yeah. Well that, so the current price is when they already had price reductions. So yeah. Um, median days on market at 63 in each are Puna. Okay. Now we can go to HPP. Okay. So active listings are 91 versus last month, 104. So less active listings price range. It's two 32, 1.795. The one that's listed for two 30 was unpermitted is unpermitted on 10th Avenue. It's 416 square feet on one acre. And the one that's 1.795 is a three bed, three bath with in the ground pool. And the reason why I keep saying in the ground pool is because to get a pool in the ground and especially in Hilo with all the lava, it's very expensive and hard, literally hard because of the lava. So it's costly. So that's why I keep moving. Every time there's a pool that's in the ground, it's like a big deal. And anyway, that house is 2,600 little over 2,600 square feet. It has a four car garage and it has 16 foot TNG ceilings, tongue and groove ceilings, sliding glass doors, those disappearing sliding glass doors that go to the pool and everything. So that's basically trying to create a Hualalai like down here next to the four seasons experience in HPP. Yeah. Why not? Well, I'm going to say something too, though. You want to be careful about over developing for the neighborhood. Yes. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, totally. Yeah. Cause that one that I had mentioned a few months ago, they just withdrew it. The one that had the bear and the water slide and all the things they just withdrew it. So I don't know what, I'm curious if they're going to put it back on the market or what they're doing. I should find out, but okay. So yeah, you do want to be careful about over building for your neighborhood, but there, you know, I don't think this one has a, I don't know. I have to check it. That one has a STVR license, but maybe that's the reason why it was a hot, hot thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting though. He's like, you know, Oh, you could get all this. Look all these great pictures. It's beautiful. And then you're like, Oh yeah, I can be in Hawaii for like this. No, I get to live in a mansion. And then they go, okay. How far do I have to drive from the airport to get to this house? Oh yeah. In the middle of a neighborhood that has, you know, you know, people who live here full time and it's not a, it's not a vacation. Yeah. Yeah. But I would, I mean, part of the neighborhood is on the water and everything. Well if it's an oceanfront that's different than being in the middle of HPP. Right. Yeah. And yeah, it's not zoned for vacation rentals. So it, but if it, you're not zoned for vacation rentals, then you need to have a license. But I think that's the similar to a lot of places around the United States. Isn't it with the Airbnb situation? Yeah, maybe. Well, I mean, specifically so people know here in Hawaii, they don't want you buying houses and renting them full time or renting them as a search and vacation rental in a residential neighborhood. And then you can do that if you do live on the property too. Isn't that how that is going? Is that, and then they don't want you in vacation property on the ag land that's been cut. Yeah. So it has to have specific zoning, like resort zoning, of course. And then commercial zoning. So if it's zoned multifamily, you can do it. But yeah. Yeah. So, and then if you live on the property, yeah. Cause you have to be able to be there in case somebody was like going nuts in the pool, 14 people to say, stop doing that. It's eight o'clock at night or whatever. So that's, that's the rule. So there were 27 that sold in HPP, 27 sales in HPP last month versus 32 the month before. So HPP is makes up about one third of the Puna inventory. Two, cause it's a humongous neighborhood. And so that's why they had more say we had, there were more sales in HPP than Hilo of Hilo. And the, the price range of the sold or 235,000 to seven 57 and the sales to current price median was 99%. So yeah, again, almost full price. People are getting for their, their, for their buys pricing. Yeah. For the revised pricing. Thank you. Revised pricing is a very good way to put it. Yes. Revised pricing. And median days on the market was 87 versus 39 last month. So these are market are definitely going up in HPP. Well, okay. There, there's some change in the market. Okay. Yeah. And then also tell them a little bit about some of the newer home builds that they they're the carrying costs on some of these new homes are making some of these people over the prices just a little bit to get them off the market. But also you're seeing, yeah, you go up. So there, that could be a factor too, where the longer these new homes sit on the market, the more it's costing the person who built them to have them on the market, not sold. Right. Yeah. The holding costs. And cause if people a lot of times they take construction loans and all of those types of things. So holding costs and then just maintenance to mowing the lawn and you know, this and that they're, they're having to pay this month over month. And, and I think a lot of the developer, I don't want to call them developers. We don't really have like developers in, in East Hawaii, we have spec home builders. And so a lot of what I'm noticing or what I'm hearing from them, a lot of them is that they're a little uncertain about where we're going, which everybody everywhere is uncertain about where we're going right now. So they are kind of giving, lowering their prices, trying to get their, their homes off, you know, sold and they're giving more incentives, just like the developers in the mainland. They're also giving incentives. Like we had, and lenders are sometimes giving incentives and working with the, the builders giving incentives too. So I had one lender match a closing cost incentive. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, so yeah, it just shows that if you are a buyer in this market, you know, they're thinking about lowering the price that we're talking about, like interest rates, if you're interest rate sensitive, that the fed might be lowering interest rates in September due to the jobs market revision. And so maybe with the prices coming down a little bit with more, you know, people who are in, you know, it's, we're not encouraged, but you know, they're there, they want to get the house off the market, motivated and motivated. They want to like get these houses off. This might be a good time to go look at a new home build right in HPP and make a deal. Yeah. I do think that if the price, if the interest rates do come down closer to six. Yeah. Maybe they'll be fine. Yeah. The prices are going to, they're not going to come down. I don't think so. I, you know, I don't, I don't. So, so if somebody could get a little, I don't know about, I don't know about what's up. If somebody can get like maybe 0.25 off their mortgage, that would give them a less of a home every single month price for the house. And so maybe buyers are waiting for the housing, for the market rates to come down a little bit before shopping for a home. And so with knowing that the rates are probably going to come down in September, I think it's pretty much, I think it's going to happen. But now might be the time to go make sure that you have your, your financing in place. And the fact that you might want to be looking for homes that might be available because if that happens and more people come into the market, you want to make sure that you're ready to go. Right. Yeah. Um, I wouldn't say people should start looking at homes before they were approved, but if the market, if they, if the interest rates come down a little bit and you've met with a lender and they say, if they come down by a little bit, you might be able to say, so if you can save $200 a month, if the rates come down and you know that, then you can say, I saw this house for 75. I can afford a $475,000 house because the interest rates came down this much. Time is ticking. You know, if, if, if the chance to move is now and you can afford it, take it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, is there, so in, in terms of, um, you know, I always tell, ask you this, is the phone ringing, are people coming to Hawaii island by a house? On my side, I, like I said, it slowed down a little bit of rate right before. I noticed every time that it slows down before the interest rates, announcement, but I, it hasn't, I don't know. We're, we're pretty, we're pretty consistent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not feeling last year actually felt worse than this year. I don't know if it's something that I got used to something or what happened, but, uh, yeah. So. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean, it also means that for your market, it's, it's, it's hanging, right? So sellers can't cry and buyers aren't, aren't getting total great deals. It's a balanced market, right? It is. It is more of a balanced market right now. It, it, it's, it's heading more towards the buyer side. You're starting to feel it flip, but it is more of a balanced market right now, despite what people are saying, Oh, as a buyer's market. No, it's more, it's more balanced. It just feels like a buyer's market to sellers because sellers aren't getting to be so bossy anymore. They're not, you know, like during COVID time, they're like, we're not doing this. We're not doing this. We're not doing this. We're not doing this. And now that's less of that. Now they're like, we will do this and we will do that. And like, let's work together. So, and when you're starting to work together, that is more of a balanced market. So, but I think for a seller or sellers hearing all about how they could just do anything that they are, you know, not give anything before. And now they're having to give a tiny bit. It feels like, Oh my gosh, the sky is falling, but well, and also like you said, though, um, what we're seeing here in our Island, but I've seen some of the things in the mainland too, is that sellers can't work a deal out and they have to lower the price too much. They're just pulling the house off the market. And some are just, this whole summer seems to be a little strange. So I do have hope for the fall. Everything's strange right now. Well, I'm glad that you got a chance to like, uh, tap in. I know that you are in Chicago and you got a day to go and enjoy your day here. So, um, enjoy shopping and doing all the things you can't do on Hawaii Island while you're in Chicago. Um, and we, yeah, I have fun. Eat well, you know, have a pizza. Um, but we will hopefully see you at the end of the month on the Island wide market update. And, um, if people want to get ahold of you, I'm dropping Nui's information down below. Um, and, um, if people have questions and watch us on YouTube, subscribe to the channel, drop some questions, um, you know, Nui can answer those questions. But also when I hear feedback, like people want to know more about the towns that we're talking about, cause they don't know the area. Obviously thank you for addressing that and we'll continue to do that to help people understand a little bit more about where these houses are. Cool. Yeah. And if people want to know certain about like certain activities nearby, I tend to just like to eat food, which Hilo actually has a really great restaurant scene. We have a lot of good chefs in Hilo, believe it or not for a small town. But if anyone wants to know certain things about activities or what there is to do, let me know. I'm happy to share and answer questions next time. Awesome. Okay, cool. Okay. Well then enjoy your day. Thank you so much. And, uh, you know, lead and learn. Thank you. Bye guys.