Welcome to our weekly Maui Real Estate Market Report

It's Aloha Friday, I'm Lahaina Lee, and this is your Maui Real Estate Market Report for Friday, October 16. Thanks for stopping by!

Obviously, the big news of the week was Hawaii welcoming transpacific travelers without subjecting them to the 14 day quarantine, provided they have a negative COVID test, of proper type, from a proper lab, with the last 72 hours. So visitors are arriving for the first time in what feels like forever. 

And the question was, "if we open it, will they come?" Yes they did.

According to a statement form the Lt. Governor's office there were about 8,000 arrivals into Hawaii. They also stated that they expect those arrival numbers to level off to about 5,000 a day for awhile. The Lt. Governor said he was also pleased that the arrivals went smoothly and there were no meltdowns. How does 5,000 arrivals compare to "normal"? According to the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, in October 2019, we were averaging over 25,000 arrivals per day. So, it sounds like we have a ways to go.

According to Maui Now, we had almost 3,000 arrivals on our island. They reported long lines and people bringing test from non-approved testing partners. Click here for a list of approved partners.

Two friends of ours who flew in confirmed the long lines upon arrival. One said it took about 2 hours to get through the line, the other moved through more quickly, but it still took over an hour. However, they both made it safely through and both are very happy to be back on Maui.

Also, both flew in from the East Coast. That's quite a haul. The one fellow said he came in on Continental Airlines and the flight was packed. I thought that was interesting considering that both Hawaiian and Alaska stated they are blocking center seats, at least through Thanksgiving. 

One final note on pre-travel testing and quarantines. Those traveling inter-island arriving on either Maui or Kauai will also need the negative COVID test with the last 72 hours or they will be subject to the 14 day quarantine.

On the ground here in Lahaina, we can tell our visitors are back. Our spin instructor said she was in Lahaina on Front Street last night going to Kimo's and there wasn't an empty parking place on Front Street and 2 different cars she was following stopped in the street to let passengers out. She said at the time she was frustrated, but then said to herself, "don't get frustrated, we need our visitors back!"

At home, Barb, my wife, AKA the boss, said she saw a pickup with the back full of young blond women coming into our condo complex. They were clearly visitors because they stopped to ask her if she was "the check-in lady." They were not socially distanced and weren't wearing masks.

There is news of parts of Europe shutting down again due to COVID cases. Many parts of the U.S. are also experiencing some spikes and some areas are reporting that hospitals are nearing capacity.

We can't take another shutdown. So, people, please, behave yourselves.

Oh, and how's real estate doing? Let's do the numbers. 

Total sales dropped for the second week in a row with just 40 total sales for the week. There were only 14 homes sold. Home sales have only been that low one time since May. The median selling price was $825,000. There were 23 condos sold at a median selling price of $561,000. That's right in line with selling prices for the last 3 weeks and very close to asking prices. Oh, and about half of those sales were in complexes allowing short term rentals.

Pending sales, new contracts, have remained steady at 63. 27 were homes and 29 were condos. The median asking price for new homes going under contract was $859K, also showing a very consistent trend. And while the number of condos going under contract has been steady, prices have been zigging and zagging up and down. We'll watch to see if the actual closing prices start to zig or zag as well.

There were 74 new listings this week. Only 20 of them were single family homes with a median asking price of $1,822,500. So, with the demand we're seeing down in the $800's, seeing half of the new listings coming on at more than $1 higher than that doesn't help our supply situation and it will likely keep pushing prices up. 45 new condos were listed at a median selling price of $555,000. So, the prices seem to be right in the sweet spot for demand, but that inventory is continuing to rise faster sales.

There were only 4 expired listings this week, all condos. The median asking price for those was $592,000. There were 18 cancelled listings with only 2 of them being homes again this week. 12 condo listings were cancelled at a median asking price of $529,750.

That's our real estate market report for the week. If you have any questions about anything that's going on here on Maui, especially anything affecting real estate, don't be afraid to reach out. We're happy to chat and share information or advice. No obligation on your part, we're not expecting anything in return, just sharing a little Aloha. After all, we are the Aloha Group. Until next time, this is Lahaina Lee reminding you to be well, stay safe and Aloha!

Maui's only weekly real estate, economic and life style report, featuring Lahaina Lee Potts.