The Royal Kahana   
March 2015
LOCAL MAUI NEWS

 

Aloha Fellow Royal Kahana Owners! 

 

Yep, that's Tom Selleck in his Magnum PI days in front of the show's estate called "Robin's Nest". The new owner of the estate is close friend of President Obama - Martin Nesbitt.  Bragging rights came free with the $8.7 million purchase.  Maui Jim Sunglasses has signed on as the title sponsor of the Maui Invitational early-season college basketball tournament. The 3 day event starts Nov. 23rd in Lahaina. Last year's tournament generated more than $13 million in visitor spending for Maui.    A national cocktail recipe contest is being held at the Sheraton Maui Resort April 11th.  They partnered with Maui's Ocean Organic Vodka and finalists from all over the country will compete for the "Ultimate Ocean Cocktail" which will be featured on Sheraton Maui menus for a year.  Startup Weekend will come to Maui in May.  Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event that takes place around the world.  This will be the 2nd year Maui has hosted the event. If you're the entrepreneur type and want more information Click here.
                       
                            Billionaires and their Hawaii Connection
Forbes Magazine list of the world's richest people finds: Pierre Omidyar - Ebay, full-time Hawaii resident ... Larry Ellison - Oracle Corp, who owns the island of Lanai ... Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook, big investor Kauai North Shore ... James Jannard - Oakley Sun glasses and Chuck Norris - Legend, also Kauai North Shore investors ... Warren Buffet - Berkshire Hathaway, our own Berkshire Hathaway Maui Properties ... Oprah Winfrey - Upcountry Maui ... and S. Robson Walton - Wal-Mart, big investor Hokulia Big Island.

Hau'oli Pakoa:  
Hawaiian for Spring Celebrations and Happy Easter. If you're looking for a fun way to celebrate here on Maui ... in addition to the Resorts various plans ... there is a great Maui Easter Egg Hunt at the Lahaina Animal Farm. The fun starts at 8am and there's a new hunt every half hour until Noon.  There's even face painting for the Keikis.  Bet you'll want to return for the Petting Zoo ... miniature horses, miniature donkey, ram, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, designer chicks, roosters, friendly pigs, rare red footed tortoises, even a 100 lb desert tortoise.  Fun Details
CURRENT MARKET ANALYSIS

A newly released report showed Japanese residents were the top foreign buyers of Hawaii real estate in 2014 with 291 purchases totaling $278 million.  Rounding out the top five purchases by foreign investors were Canada (213 sales, $165 million); Singapore (15 sales, $57 million); China (15 sales, $25 million); and Hong Kong (13 purchases, $14 million).  Korea, Australia, Germany, Guam and New Zealand rounded out the top 10 among foreign investors.  Now here on Maui ... Canada topped the list with 94 sales for $84 million.  Despite the interest by foreign investors, domestic investors dominate the market.
    
Nationally, 89% of U.S. Homes with a mortgage had equity by the end of 2014 according to CoreLogic.  But Hawaii really came out smelling like a rose (or should I say lei) with 96.3% of mortgaged homes back in the positive equity position. 
     
Maui in the Sand
Here on Maui, sales of high-end condominiums helped push the median price up to $475,000.  That's a 38% increase compared to $345,000 in February 2014.  The number of condominium sales also rose ... 4% to 93 units sold compared to 89 in February of last year. Four of Maui County's 12 regions had a median price of more than $1 million.  High-end sales in Kaanapali pushed that area's median price to $1.17 million.  Three sales in Kapalua had a median price of $1.3 million. Two sales on Lanai had a median price of $1.06 million. And one Upcountry Kula unit sold for $2.57 million.  Single-family home sales and prices were pretty flat last month.
                            
Let's take a look at The Royal Kahana:  Figures taken from the Realtors Association of Maui

Status

Unit

Bd

Ba

 List $

LT

 Sold $

Close

*ACTIVE

405

0

1

250,000

LH

ACTIVE

104

0

1

322,000

*ACTIVE

217

0

1

325,000

*ACTIVE

1019

0

1

328,000

ACTIVE

718

0

1

329,000

*ACTIVE

616

0

1

336,000

ACTIVE

106

1

1

487,000

*ACTIVE

314

1

1

498,900

ACTIVE

708

1

1

529,000

ACTIVE

501

2

2

565,000

*ACTIVE

720

2

2

574,900

ACTIVE

201

2

2

595,000

*ESCROW

1103

0

1

337,500

*ESCROW

607

1

1

510,000

*SOLD

809

1

1

450,000

430,000

03/19/15

*SOLD

315

1

1

499,500

485,000

03/09/15

*price reduced

*new listing

*price increase

*new escrow

*new sale


TOURISM

Hawaii Tourism Japan has entered into an exclusive partnership with Yo-Kai Watch (it's supposed to be the next Pokemon), a popular video game and TV series.  Hopes are the characters in the picture to the right will promote Hawaii in Japan.   Hawaii is also targeting China, with hopes of hitting 500,000 visitors by 2020.  That would put China on par with the Canadian market.  The number of Chinese visitors to Hawaii has increased steadily since 2009, and they're looking at another 12% jump from last year. Hawaii got a lot of exposure in Australia earlier this month.  Sunrise, Australia's top morning TV show broadcast live from here for a week. Estimates are 2.9 million viewers watched the show.  
            
Hawaii's average hotel occupancy bumped up a bit last week to 81.8% last week compared to the same time last year, but room rates rose 1.7% averaging $235.49.   As usual, Maui had by far the highest average room rate - $319.87 per night, a 7.9% gain year over year.  Maui also led all islands in occupancy with 85%, a 0.7% increase over last year.
                      
TRAVEL

Normally we don't want to see shark fins in Hawaii ... but see the tips of the wings in the photo to the left?  Those are inspired by shark fins - and called sharklets a new wingtip technology.  Virgin Airlines is ordering 10 planes which will create up to 3% additional fuel efficiency and increase its range.  And for the cherry on top ... those sharklets may be just the ticket for Virgin America to include Hawaii as one of it's new destinations.   Attention United Airlines frequent flyers. You can now use your miles to fly or sail to Hawaii.  Actually, United Cruises will let you use your miles or a combination of miles and points to cruise all over the world.
             
Overall, Hawaii tourism is looking at another strong year.  Airlift to Hawaii is up 6.4% this year. More foreign countries are looking to add Hawaii as a destination.  Aeromexico is in preliminary stages of developing a flight from Mexico City.  That would be the first and only direct route from Latin America to the Islands.  Schedules would be seasonal April to August, and mid-December to early January.  AirAsia X is preparing to fly to Hawaii.  AirAsia is the continent's largest low-cost carrier.
       
Before
After
                    What do we have here?
To the left: the old interior of Hawaiian Airlines' Interisland passenger seats.  To the right: their new lightweight slimline seats.  So far they've retrofitted 18 of their planes, and hope to have their entire interisland fleet completed by the end of this year.  The new seats will boost the passenger count by as many as 10 seats.

Due to increased demand, Hawaiian will be adding to its flight frequency from Kona to Kahului.  From June to August, there will be a total of 5 daily flights on that route.   
            
Air Wars are heating up between Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines in Hawaii.   In December, Delta will start a daily nonstop flight from Seattle to Kona ... giving it daily nonstop flights to 3 Hawaiian Islands - Oahu, Maui, & The Big Island.  That's getting close to Alaska's flights to 4 Islands from Seattle.  In return, Alaska will begin nonstop flights from Seattle to New York City's JFK International in September - a major hub for Delta.  Did I mention that it's also the sole East Coast destination for Hawaiian Airlines?  This could all benefit travelers by putting pricing pressure on the popular Hawaii routes.
MORTGAGES

Mortgage lenders say that credit tightening is softening. But now we KNOW that mortgage interest rates will rise soon.  The Federal Reserve's short-term rates has stayed near zero since December 2008, which has helped keep interest rates near historical lows.  I'm going to turn this over to my mortgage guru Dean Rathbun of Avis Mortgage to update us on the Fed's upcoming move.  Dean shared that Fed Chair Janet Yellen adjusted their policy statement recently by removing the word "patient" when referring to the start of rising interest rates.  While it's unlikely that rate hikes will start next month, they could start as soon as June.  The kicker here is they once they do start to rise, they'll rise more gradually than previously projected.  So if you've been sitting on the fence about buying or selling property, you should try to lock in the low rate now.
              
Dean also says that Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOC) that were big between 2005 and 2008 are scheduled to reset to higher interest rates soon.  A recent study by RealtyTrac found that more than half of the HELOCs facing interest rate resets, are on properties that are seriously underwater.  Likewise, a TransUnion study shows that up to $79 billion of HELOC balances could be at elevated risk of default in the next few years.  The news gets bleaker for property owners in trouble.  The number of Repeat Foreclosures is up 11%.  A repeat foreclosure occurs after a home owner begins the foreclosure process, but then gets a loan modification or new payment plan.  The repeat part kicks in when despite the modification, the borrowers are still unable to make payments and the property falls back into foreclosure.
                   
Gotta throw in a little good news here: Loan delinquencies on residential properties fell to a rate of 5.68%.  That's back to Pre-Crisis levels! 

                                                     eco island
                    
A couple of seriously cool Green things are coming exclusively to Hawaii!  The picture to the left is of the new Toyota "MIRAI" hydrogen fuel cell car. It is the world's first mass-produced fuel cell car, and is expected to be sold here next year.  Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are project to grow to 10,000 by 2022 in Hawaii and surpass electric cars (EV) by 2025.  Cheap? No.  But the driving range on one of these babies is more than 3 times the typical range of current electric cars. Did I mention they can be refilled with hydrogen fuel in about 5 minutes vs much longer charging times for EVs.  Oh yeah, and the only engine emission is water vapor.
        
NextEra Energy I've mentioned before.  They're the company buying Hawaiian Electric for $4.3 billion.  Well, they've got ambitious plans.  NextEra expects to spend up to $34 billion for various energy project over the next 3 years.

I did say there were 2 seriously cool things coming to Hawaii.  The second thing is the picture to the right.  The first floating offshore wind farm in the United States!  The idea has been bandied about for years, but now Alpha Wind Energy (Denmark) has actually filed a request with the U.S. Interior Department. The project would include more than 100 turbines in federal waters off Hawaii. Offshore wind resources are abundant, stronger and blow more consistently than land-based wind projects.
                          MAUI HAPPENINGS

Mar 27 & 29: Maui Chamber Orchestra-All Mozart Tickets
Mar 28: Special Olympics Maui Swim & Fin Schedule
Mar 28: Taste of Aloha  Lahaina Specifics
Mar 29: 4th Annual Maui 5k Run particulars
Mar 31: Cesar Chavez Fiesta Info
April 10: 'Aipono Wine Dinner Series - Piedmont (808) 879-2224
April 17: Chinese Kite Festival Lahaina - Wo Hing Museum (Front Street Lahaina)
April 18: Go Fly a Kite Kaanapali - Keka'a North Beach Open Space 10am - 2pm
April 24 - 26: 7th Annual Maui Steel Guitar Festival Info
April 25: 22nd Annual Haiku Ho'olaule'a & Flower Festival Details

Maui On Stage tickets
4/24-5/10: Neil Simon's Brighton Beach memories
7/10-8/2:  The Adams Family

Maui Arts & Cultural Center  Tickets 
3/27: "Solo Sessions:  Richard Thompson     concert
3/29: New York Polyphony      male vocal chamber ensemble
4/10: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue    concert
4/11: Pink Martini     global pop symphony
4/24-25: Shoyu on Rice     theatre
4/26: "Pa'a Ke Aupuni"    animated film of Hawaii history
4/30: Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars     world music concert

If you're thinking of buying more property or selling your unit ... re-read that section on Mortgages ... rates WILL be going up.  You might want to take advantage of the record low rates now.   Remember I'm a fellow Royal Kahana owner, and I'm available to you 7 days a week.  I am the Broker/Owner of Berkshire Hathaway Maui Properties - Hawaii's only Berkshire Hathaway brokerage.  I've been a Royal Kahana Specialist since 1987 and have closed over $1.5 billion in Maui real estate sales. 

EXCEEDING YOUR EXPECTATIONS
                                                                                                                                                

   feedback or testimonials icon or button. Publical comments for improvement and customer satisfaction                                                                                                              

If listed with another Broker, this is not intended to disturb that relationship
Local Lender
    Low Rates     
Fixed & Adjustable Rates
Condo-tel Lender for over 18 Years
DEAN RATHBUN
Toll Free (888) 455-AVIS (2847)
Increased Income  Reduced Expenses
Never Pay For Guest Damages
Guest Travel Insurance
 Eliminates Guest Refunds
Maui Beachfront Logo Shell
MAUI BEACHFRONT RENTALS
Toll Free (888) 661-7200