(Honolulu, Hawaii) My experience in real estate sales over the past six months shows a great deal of a bidding war going on the island of Oahu. Well, it’s about time, don’t you think? Single-family homes in Hawaii are seriously dirt cheap these days and those who have CASH to buy are in shopping heaven.
Donald Trump stands by his motto of buying low and selling high. We are now in the low side, so buy up, folks! This applies to those who are sitting on cash. So true, that cash is king!
According to REALTOR.com, which tracked information from 146 real estate markets, the number of homes listed on the MLS continues to become a shrinking pool. Inventory of for-sale single-family homes, condos, town homes, and co-ops dropped 20 percent in May compared to levels a year ago.
According to Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine Daily News, inventories in May declined in all but two hot spots in the country – Philadelphia and Shreveport-Bossier City, La. While inventories took a dive to lower levels, the median national list price was on the rise, inching up 3.17 percent in May compared to May 2011.
“These key indicators continue to suggest that the housing market is steadily moving along a path of stabilization and gradual recovery,” Realtor.com notes.
12 Markets Where Inventories Have Dropped the Most
From May 2011 to May of this year, the following metro areas have posted the highest drops in the country with their housing inventories, with inventories falling 35 percent or more in the last year.
Those metros are:
- Oakland, Calif.: -56.60%
- Fresno, Calif.: -48.76%
- Bakersfield, Calif.: -48.59%
- Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.: -44.71%
- Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.: -42.65%
- San Jose, Calif.: -40.80%
- Tampa-St., Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.: -39.76%
- Stockton-Lodi, Calif.: -39.25%
- Atlanta, Ga.: -39.19%
- San Francisco, Calif.: -38.90%
- Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.: -37.43%
- Sacramento, Calif.: -35.92%
California metro areas are seeing some of the largest drops in inventories of for-sale homes. That is a good sign for the Hawaii real estate market. It is my personal opinion, based on historical data, that Hawaii follows the California market a year later.
I too noticed that the for-sale inventory in my home neighborhood of Hawaii Kai remains tight. This is a positive sign indeed of an improving economy. For more information about the pulse of Oahu’s real estate market, contact me.
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