How to Live in Kahala for Under $1 Million

When my parents bought their first Hawaii, Kahala home at 1002 Hunakai St. in 1967 – right around the corner from our new Hawaii Life office – they paid $37,000. The home sat on Bishop Estate leasehold land as all Kahala homes did at that time. I remember my mother telling me that all the rich people lived down the street closer to the beach – on the makai (ocean) side of Kilauea Ave.

Nowadays, it’s pretty tough for middle and upper-middle income families to purchase a Kahala single family residence where prices for fixer-uppers start at over $1 million. However, there is hope in the condo/town home section of Kahala where listing prices are currently averaging about $460K.

Some of the attractive features of Kahala are:

• Good school district
• Convenience to beaches
• Surf spots
• Parks
• Popular Kahala Mall with easy access to freeway
• Comparatively minimal traffic congestion problems during daily commutes

On top of all that, the prices on Kahala condos and town homes never really dipped during the correction period that we saw after the mortgage crisis. Available inventory has remained relatively low as have days on market for the past several years.

Interestingly, asking prices did just jump recently following the appearance of a couple listings that came on market at significantly higher asking prices than previous sale prices. This new listing price level seems to have spurred a number of sellers to come on market to test the waters creating a much larger inventory level than we have seen in recent years.

Take a look at the current active Kahala condo/town home listings, and contact me if you are interested in one of these, or any other properties.