Kihei and Wailea Real Estate Update

Inventory is starting to gain traction, with 40 new listings in March, and an increase from 111 to 155 active listings from January to March. This number has been impacted slightly by the Kamaole Sands situation, where   plumbing issues and impending special assessments at Kamaole Sands had some impact; however, inventory is up, across the board.
Look at the ocean front Kanai A Nalu, a Leasehold property in Maalaea, for example: active listings have swelled from two to seven in the last 60 days, and prices there fell below $700,000 for the first time in recent memory.
Sales numbers remained strong, keeping pace with the 20-23 units closed that we’ve seen in recent months, with a total of 21.
Our increased inventory has not yet resulted in significant price reductions, but volume appears to be slowing a bit.  Only 9 units went into escrow in March, compared to 15 the month before.
Interest rates remain steady and have not fallen as expected, although the FED has assured our lending contacts that there will be at least one, and possibly two, small decreases by the end of the year.
Buyers are still closing at or very near list prices in a lot of instances, particularly at the high end. Wailea Elua 201, on market only a few weeks, closed at full asking ($3.999M), as did Ekahi 23C ($1.6M), as did several other Kihei Properties. We saw our first Polo Beach closing in a while (unit 706), listed at $5.6M, which closed at $5.4M.
Overall, our market remains active and healthy, with the largest complaint not enough inventory. As we move into April-May, typically a slowdown period in Maui real estate, we’ll keep an eye on this trend. 

Kevin Spaise is a Maui Realtor specializing in Maui vacation rental investment real estate. Kevin is an expert in Kihei and Wailea real estate and has been a full time Realtor for 20 years, with more than $120M transacted. He owns Vacation Maui, a property management company with 70+ investment condos under management, and delights in providing real-time performance data to future investors. See KevinSpaise.com, or call him directly at (808) 344-0624.