Resort home sales flat despite high tourism

Hawaii tourism had another record year of arrivals in 2016, but statewide sales of homes typically bought by visitors barely budged, a new report shows.

Sales of residential property within master-planned Hawaii resorts moved up by just one last year to 1,322 from 1,321 the year before, and the average price stayed the same at $1.3 million, according to the report by local housing market researcher Ricky Cassiday.

Furthermore, the number of sales in each of the last two years was smaller than in the prior two years, which included 1,467 sales in 2013. Yet the average price in the last two years was the highest since 2008’s $1.6 million.

Overall, the value of homes sold at Hawaii resorts was about $1.75 billion in each of the last two years, up from about $1.7 billion in the prior two years.

Cassiday said 2016 was a “weird year” but noted that the flat sales were mainly due to relatively little supply of new homes produced by developers at resorts around the state.

“The overall market is flat — flat sales, flat prices — 2015 became 2016,” he said. “It looks like nothing happened.”

What happened, however, was that the number of sales and prices for existing homes at resorts went up while new homes sold by developers went down.

Developers sold 199 resort homes last year for an average price of $2.4 million, compared with 230 homes the year before at the same average price. Resales of existing resort homes totaled 1,123 for an average price of $1.1 million last year, compared with 1,091 sales at the same average price the year before.

Cassiday’s report showed that the number of new homes sold by developers has been around 200 annually for the last six years, compared with roughly between 350 and 1,000 annually over the preceding 12 years.

The report said developer projects that had strong or increased sales last year included Ka Milo and Kulalani on Hawaii island, Pili Mai on Kauai and Honua Kai on Maui.

By island, Maui accounted for the most resort home property sales at 414 and had the highest average price at $1.7 million last year.

There were 383 sales on Kauai for an average price of $844,924. On Hawaii island there were 380 sales for an average $1.6 million, and on Oahu there were 145 sales for an average $687,395.

Cassiday’s report covers sales of single-family homes, condominiums and residential lots within resorts such as Kaanapali on Maui, Princeville on Kauai and Turtle Bay on Oahu. It does not cover sales of homes outside of resorts bought by visitors.