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Kamuela, HI Real Estate News

By Katie Minkus
(Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC)
"This feels like 'Old Hawaii'" is a statement we often hear when someone “discovers” Puako Beach on the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii for the first time. Don your pareo, we’re going back in time with recently sold property prices as well. New Oceanfront Listing in Puako—coming soon! While the first quarter volume of 2010 shows improvement over 2009 for Puako Beach sales (no sales in Q1 2009), prices have continued to decline. Two second floor condo units sold for $275k and $225k. At the market high, these units would have traded from $400-500k. There haven’t yet been any mauka (mountain) side properties sold in Q1, but as far as oceanfront property sales go, we’ve seen one 750 sq ft traditional beach cottage conveyed for $1.8M and a bare oceanfront parcel sold for $1.6M. Um. Wow. These...
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By Katie Minkus
(Hawaii Life Real Estate Services, LLC)
2009 year-end results for Puako Beach, show that neighborhood sales are looking positive! Out of the six properties sold in 2009, 4 were mauka side and 2 on the makai (oceanfront) side of the road. Compared to 2008’s two properties sold - 1 mauka, 1 makai, and 2007's  8 properties  - 2 mauka and 6 makai, I would say it looks as if Puako beach has come through the economic crisis intact, and is on the upswing again. It appears possible we’ve hit the “bottom” of pricing in Puako, at least on the mauka side of the street.  The lowest-priced mauka sale since #35 sold in April, 2003 for $499k*, lot #27 went for $500k in May, and comparable sold property prices indicate an increase in value since then. This is good news for the “desirability” of Puako in general. As for the makai side of the ...
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By Beth Thoma Robinson, R(B) SFR - Hawaii Island Luxury Resort Real Estate
(Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers Big Island)
Tucked in between the upscale Kohala Coast resorts of Mauna Lani and Mauna Kea, are the cottages, homes and even a few condos of the beachfront community known as Puako.  Compared with the hustle and bustle of the Kailua Kona beachfront, Puako feels like an oasis, a step back in time to the Old Hawai'i. The just-renovated Mauna Kea Beach Hotel inaugurated the era of tourism on the pristine Kohala Coast when it opened in 1965, but kama'aina (local) families had been swimming, fishing, and relaxing at their tiny beachfront Puako cottages for decades before. Puako is the kind of sheltered beach where children, turtles and surfers share the sands.  There is only one two-lane street running the length of the community, with a row of houses on the ocean side, and a row of houses across the st...
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By Beth Thoma Robinson, R(B) SFR - Hawaii Island Luxury Resort Real Estate
(Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers Big Island)
I blogged over on AlohaLiving about the recently released NAR survey of second home buyers.  Although nationwide the respondents indicated that 30% of them plan to use the second home as their retirement home, in my experience that is true of an even higher percentage of buyers looking at real estate here on the Big Island of Hawaii today.  I'm surprised how many people for whom retirement is 10 years out are looking for property today. They are savvy enough to know that the real estate market offers them an opportunity that might not be there closer to their anticipated retirement date. Some prospective buyers arrive having a clear idea of what they want--perhaps to downsize to a resort condo near a golf course and lots of options for dining out, perhaps to own a coffee farm in a rural...
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By John Petrella
(Local Hawaii Real Estate)
The number of Land sales in our N Kohala Real Estate district are down since thier peak in May of 2005. N Kohala is one of 9 Real Estate districts on the Big Island of Hawaii.  (Click here to view a map that shows the location of N Kohala on the Big Island of Hawaii).  We have been in a downward trending market ever since February 2006.  N Kohala has had no Land sales so far in December. Below is a chart that shows the number of Land Sales in the N Kohala District on the Big Island of Hawaii.  The data are over the last 5 years, starting with November 2003 and ending in November 2008.  More sales data and info can be found at LocalHawaiiRealEstate.com  (Data Source:  Big Island MLS) Stop by, visit and talk story at our office on the Big Island of Hawaii! John Petrella, REALTOR®ABR®, GRI...
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