I had another client sign a contract at the Allure in Waikiki today, where condo prices are reduced between 15-30%. They are still the best deal in town for Waikiki Condos. The building is on track to close in April and is one of Oahu's few new buildings this year.

They are about 48% sold right now, with about 20 of them being sold in the last 2 months. The sales agent said they have been selling 3-4 units per week. 

For under $1mil you can get a nice mountain or ocean view condo with 2 bedrooms and about 1100sqft. 

For about $700k you can get a 1200sqft 2 bedroom with a city view of Waikiki and Honolulu.  

For $1.5mil, you can buy a beautiful penthouse around 1380sqft with an ocean view overlooking Waikiki. All these prices reflect a 30% reduction from the original sale price. 

The Allure is a great looking building located at the entrance to Waikiki, right across from the Landmark Waikiki, and I think my clients will be thrilled. At current prices, the Allure is about 15-20% below the resale market at the Watermark and Lanikea at Waikiki, both somewhat similar in style and age. 

As of December 31st, there were 1100 homes for sale on the entire island of Oahu.  That's just about HALF of the number we had last December, and it's the lowest amount of inventory since August 2005! 

HELP!  If you are even close to thinking about selling your house, please do it now!  I have so many buyers looking for homes, it's absolutely maddening.  I have writte full price offers that have been outbid, and have some clients who have been waiting 6 months to find a home! 

This is insane.  How on Earth, in this economy, can Oahu real estate inventory be  so low? 

Even with only 258 single family sales closing last month,  we still don't have enough. While that number is a lot lower than the 325 that sold in Dec '08, homes are still selling in an average of 34 days.  We currently have 4.2 months of inventory.  In reality, there just aren't enough homes for sale. 

If you're reading this and you plan to sell this year, please tell me. I literally have about 85 buyers who are actively looking for a home right now.

Yesterday I viewed this house in Kailua listed for over $750,000.  It's bank owned, and had been foreclosed a couple months ago. 

We found that the house is infested with termites, has foundation problems, and basically has been stripped.  It will probably need to be torn down, because the foundation is sagging so much it is laughable. Drywall has been ripped out to reveal the half eaten beams.

And this is why you don't want to buy a foreclosure at an auction. Imagine if you had bid on this house without the chance to do a proper inspection, and then you lose your 10% deposit to the foreclosure commissioner because you back out. 

At least now that it is an REO, you have the chance to do a formal inspection and get out of the purchase before your deposit is at risk. 

Everyone here thinks of it as Ocean Pointe, but the real name of the new development is now "Hoakalei and Ka Makana."  I'm not sure why they chose such a difficult name, but that is what the sign says. Technically, Ocean Pointe is done, and now it's on with the new part of the development.

I was there yesterday with a client, viewing the brand new homes and models. It's tempting, with all the great things that come with newness, but right now the waiting list is literally 6 months long.  If you show up right now with cash, they can't sell you a house until about June or July, maybe August. 

Homes have been selling there like hot cakes, and every home we were looking at has a waiting list about 7 people long.  Priced between about $500k and $1million, the homes at Ka Makana are right in the median price range of homes in Oahu real estate.

I'm pretty sure there will be about 50 new resale listings in January though.  That should help the buyers a lot.  At least I hope so, because I have several buyers waiting for something good in that area.

It's December 23rd, and it's beautiful and 80degrees outside right now. I just rode my bike down to the beach to check the waves.  It's Winter in Hawaii, and that means the same thing it means all year - the weather is beautiful and it's time to head to the beach. 

This is my son at the beach last week, taken with my cell phone.

So wherever you are, if you're cold and dreaming of living in Hawaii someday, let this motivate you to make the move soon!

I have no idea how Louisiana beat us, but Hawaii is the second happiest state in the Union, according to a recent study published by the UK’s University of Warwick and Hamilton College in the US.

They were looking at the happiness levels of one million US citizens to discover which
are the best and worst states in which to live in the United States. 

"The state-by-state pattern is of interest in itself.  But it also
matters scientifically.  We wanted to study whether people's feelings
of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether
they match up to reality -- of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality,
etc -- in their own state.  And they do match.  When human beings give
you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with
their lives, you should pay attention."

The top 10 :

I've been getting the calls, even during Christmas week.  While inventory is at a 4 year low in Oahu, the calls from sellers have been starting to come. 

Several Hawaii homes owners have been calling me to let me know to get ready to list their home in January, so I wouldn't be surprised if lots of other agents are getting those calls too.  Every year, the market activity picks up dramatically around January 5th. 

I also have several buyers that waited patiently through 2009 to see if the market would tank.  It didn't.  So now they are ready to buy something in 2010 before rates go up. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the number of sales closed in February and March were double those of last year at the same time. Heck, even triple!

Only a couple weeks before it all starts again.  Merry Christmas and enjoy your holiday!

I saw an interesting article on the best and worst tap water in American cities.  I've always thought that our tap water was pretty darn good, but it's nice to know for sure.

Cities with the best water:

1. Arlington, TX
2. Providence, RI
3. Fort Worth, TX
4. Charleston, SC
5. Boston, MA
6. Honolulu, HI
7. Austin, TX
8. Fairfax County, VA
9. St. Louis, MO
10. Minneapolis, MN

The article says that, "Experts still agree  that drinking tap is preferable to drinking bottled water. Bottled water is much more expensive than tap, it takes a huge toll on the planet, and it's not necessarily any safer than tap. "Bottled water is not regulated in the same way as tap water," says Olga Naidenko, a senior scientist at EWG. "With bottled water, consumers often do not know what they are getting, and 25 to 40 percent of bottled water on the market is simply tap poured into a bottle."

Just one more real to live in Hawaii.  Clean water!

 The Allure Waikiki is now discounting their original list prices by at least 20%, sometimes more for the higher floors where prices are around $1.5million.  I visited the sales office with a client of mine on Wednesday, where the sale agent explained that all list prices would be 20% off or more. Quite a bargain compared to other buildings we viewed.

HERE is the current PRICE LIST  - Contact me for more info!

We began at 10am by viewing The Watermark, Lanikea, 1717 Ala Wai, Ko Olani, and a few others. When we visited the Allure, we found that you could buy a 1350sqft brand new unit with a view for around $850k.  That's an amazing difference compared to the 1000sqft condos we found in the other buildings. 

Now the grounds haven't been completed, but the renderings look very nice, with a huge 18'ft ceiling lobby, Asians gardens, pool, fitness center, and bbq area.  The only places that compare would be the Ko Olani and the Watermark, which both have superb amenities.

The Allure has a planned completion around April, and unlikle most projects, I think they may actually meet that date.  The building already has a couple units completed and ready for viewing by prospective buyers.

I went up to watch the giant waves that came in this week.  This pic was from the day before the Quikselver Eddie Aikau , which was bigger than the day of the contest.  It was an awesome day of giant waves. I took this pic with a 500mm zoom lens, because that's about as close as I would ever get to a wave this big.

 Look at the guy there. He is about 5'10", which makes the face of the wave about 35 feet.  If that thing hit you, it would feel like you got punched in the face by an elephant.  There is more water in that wave than in 10 Olympic size swimming pools. 

And this is a beautiful thing in Hawaii, because it brings the media, tourists, professional surfers, and big corporate sponsors.  And guess what, some of them buy North Shore real estate!