Residential Real Estate, Photography, and Life in Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Hi Everyone, hope you are finding awesome ways to beat the heat! It seems like everyday I look at the weather report and it says “feels like 90+.” Luckily, we’ve seen sprinkles of showers here and there, so maybe the real estate market is mirroring the temperate weather we are experiencing too! Here’s a breakdown of the numbers, and some key points I’m watching as we move along the second half of 2019.
Search where you want.
TL;DR — Because it’s expensive, messy, and that’s not the real reason you’re here. You should search where you feel comfortable, but I recommend here.
An MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, is the common acronym for the database that a real estate industry uses to reference real estate transactions. Here on Oahu, the Honolulu Board of Realtors (HBR) uses an MLS software called “Matrix” where brokerages input their listing data for the real estate industry to access. Think of it like a central database where all the independent brokerages across the island come to share their information across the industry.
This central database also allows websites to have a central point to access real estate data. A site like Zillow, for example, accesses the MLS database several times a day and scrubs any new data that it finds for it’s own site. You’ll also find many broker websites, including our own Marcus & Associates, who have installed this feature as well. Each website pays the HBR MLS for access to that data, as well as fees to the software company who harvests that data for you. Those costs can add up.
Getting the MLS data is expensive, but displaying the data can be even more costly. Between the time and money it takes to setup your basic website alone, adding in a searchable database compounds that cost even more. I decided years ago that it was not worth my it to setup my website to handle MLS data because there are other websites (like our HBR’s own HiCentral) that do it much better than I ever could.
As a side note, HiCentral is the only website I know of that has live listings for public search. Even Zillow can only “scrape” data a few times a day, and my own website would be the same.
I also see a real danger in how some websites implement MLS data without any thought to user experience. It can get messy, hard to understand, and reflects poorly on the customer experience. I don’t want to create any experience, no matter how insignificant, that is not beneficial to my clients. MLS data is no different.
When I was laying out my website, I gave a lot of thought to “why” you would be accessing my site. I quickly realized I don’t have the resources to be the first result for a Google search of “hawaii real estate listings,” and I would always send clients customized websites directly from our MLS instead. There would never be a reason that you came to this website to access MLS data, and I didn’t want to waste anyone’s time and energy just to have the feature on my website.
Instead, I have put that time and energy into designing a user experience that I think you’ll like, and hope you understand why that doesn’t include MLS listings (maybe, for now??).
Hi Everyone, hope your summer is going well and you’re finding ways to deal with the heat! My wife and I have spent hours building all kinds of creative fan mounts to maximize the airflow in our house, so but that wasn’t enough to cool off a hot month in the market. July exceeded all my expectations, so let’s jump into the numbers and see what insight we can determine.
Like I mentioned above, July exceeded my expectations for what I expected to be a bumpy summer. One month’s statistics does not summarize an entire summer, so we’ll see if the hot numbers can continue through the rest of the year. Active listings are still up around 17% versus 2018, so prices are rising while inventory is growing. That’s a great sign for both sides of the deal, and a much healthier market than 2018.
Last week, the Federal Reserve dropped its benchmark interest rate for the first time since the Great Recession in 2008. Growing tensions with China and slower wage growth were cited as reasons for the cut, but it’s an interesting move by “The Fed” to prevent our economy from slowing down, despite signs that it’s still growing. Typically, this would take a little while to trickle down to mortgage lenders and spur homebuyers to act on the lower rates. However, our stats are from the entire month of July and the Fed didn’t cut rates till July 31st! Local homebuyers were already motivated by lower interest rates, so it will be interesting to see what the Fed cut means for September and October.
Numbers across the board are up, except one. Inventory is growing, median price is up, and number of sales is up, but percent to original price is down at 96%. That points to slight price gauging by Sellers looking to maximize their return, and probably points to a fluke month of numbers. If median prices continue to climb, but the percent-to-original-price number keeps falling then we should see more inventory on the market for the rest of the year.
On July 26th, our fellow Hawaii real estate brokerage, Locations Hawaii, announced the official sales information for a brand new condo in Kakaako. The project, called “Ililani,” features a healthy mix of affordable units and market units and is projected to sell out quickly. As a licensed millenial, I popped open my phone and used Google to find info on the project. The resulting search brought me to dozens of non-developer websites, with the top results belonging to agents who are not even associated with Locations. There’s a clear strategy brewing here, and it made me pause and wonder what kind of message we agents are sending to consumers.
Summer is here and boy is it a hot one (literally)! I don’t know about all of you, but I’m on the hunt for good A/C wherever I go. In fact, maybe I’ll only take listings that have A/C this summer (just kidding)!! The market overall seems to be heading as expected, as more inventory comes on and prices still rise. Let’s take a look at some stats and see what we can decipher.
[Read more…] about Prices show steady rise, while market grows
Yesterday, the State of Hawaii released the property tax rates for the 2019-2020 fiscal year and there were notable changes that will affect residential investors. Both the Resort/Hotel and Residential A (Tier 2) class of properties saw a minimum $1.00 jump to $13.90 and $10.50, respectively. Both of these classes target investors in properties like vacation rentals in resort zoning or high-end homes available for rent.
[Read more…] about July Brings a Bump in High-End Residential A & Resort Property TaxA couple friends and I were talking the other day and had the idea to throw a short, teen-friendly seminar about finance. I know, “teen-friendly” and “finance seminar” are the definition of oxymoron, so that’s why we need your help in making it less-lame.
[Read more…] about Help Me Build a Teen Financial Seminar
Happy June everyone, and hope you’re surviving the heat! As expected, 2019 is shaping up to be an interesting year as we start to see the fruits of a pickier Buyer’s market. It’s definitely not time to panic, especially as median prices dip, but let’s see what kind of trends we’re watching as the first half of the year comes to a close.
[Read more…] about Summer Inventory Heats Up, As Housing Prices Cool