Suffice it to say that 2009 will not be remembere
d
as a banner year in real estate but as bad as it seems, it’s important
to remember that we came a long way before we started to retreat. Watch
this. The median sales price islandwide at the end of the year 2000
was $175,000. There were 101 residential sales on the entire island
that year.
Now watch. The median price of a home in Hilo at
that time was $145,000. Only 9, yep 9, homes sold that year (down from
19 in 1999). Not surprisingly, the median price in Puna was a little
above $67,000. Even if we fast forward, we still find homes selling for
more now than they did in 2004. It’s good to keep life in
perspective. Sales activity for 2009 was up 8% over 2008 and while
sales prices dropped 19% from the previous year, it’s important to
keep in mind that the island-wide 2008 median pricing is still close to
par with 2005 pricing.
Of course, many segments have been
severely affected but numbers don’t always tell a complete story. It’s
difficult to say how much the (in my opinion unnecessary) exclusion of
loan programs in lava zones 1&2 has affected market recovery in
lower Puna and Ocean View but the compound effect of negative press
surrounding this issue can certainly not be denied.
Sometimes numbers are all we have, so here they are:
Inventory
levels are still declining and sales are hovering around 120 per month
island-wide. By historical measures, we are doing pretty well. For
certain, current numbers are way ahead of where we began this decade
which might mean that the sky isn’t falling after all!
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