Nick Kawakami

With the holiday season gearing up, I’m happy to announce that my family and I will be hosting our 14th annual toy drive and kick-off concert again this year! The festivities start with a concert featuring my Dad & Brother at the Slack Key Lounge at Hawaiian Brians, and continue with a month-long toy drive to benefit the Laulima Giving Program.

We started this toy drive with the intent to help local families and, to date, we’ve donated thousands of new toys and tens of thousands of dollars. It’s been a huge privilege and humbling experience to see so many of our friends and family support this cause with us each year!

Kick-Off Concert Details

To start the toy drive and kick-off the Christmas season, MānoaDNA will be performing live and tickets will be available soon! Here are the details for the concert, as of today (11/4/2024):

• Date: Saturday, November 30th, 2024
• Location: Slack-Key Lounge at Hawaiian Brians (1680 Kapiolani Blvd, 2nd Floor)
• Time: TBD, but will be an evening concert
• Tickets: Click here to buy tickets ($10/each)
• Virtual Viewing: Link to be provided before the concert

We will also be collecting toys at the concert, so please bring new, unused, and unwrapped donations with you!

More Ways to Donate Toys!

The concert is not the only way we are collecting toys! If you can’t make it to the concert, you can still help Hawai‘i families by donating new and unwrapped toy donations to my office at Marcus Realty through December 23rd. Please drop off during business hours (8:30 AM-5:30 PM Monday-Friday), and do not leave any donations outside if the office is closed. The Laulima Giving Project will come to pick up all the donations and make sure they get into the right hands!

If you are going to be dropping off a toy to my office this way, please call/text me to let me know! I am not personally there during all business hours, but our staff is ready to help if I am not.

Thank You!

On behalf of my family, we’re super grateful that you’re taking the time to help this great cause! We’ve been really fortunate to have great Christmases growing up, so we really work hard to give that to other families as well! Your donations go directly to the Laulima Giving Project and make a HUGE difference during the holidays! Thank you for being a part of it, and happy holidays!

Here are my opinions on the O‘ahu real estate market after October and finishing up the third quarter of 2023

They say time flies when you’re having fun, so that must mean I’m having tons of fun this year! I can’t believe it’s already November and we’re on our way to Thanksgiving & Christmas. Whether you’re on-island or away, I wish you nothing but a safe and happy start to the holiday season and look forward to another great year in 2024! Here’s my thoughts on the market for September 2023 and the third quarter overall.

Q3 2023 Summary & Opinion

Overall in the third quarter of 2023, we saw some interesting trends emerge as the year-over-year changes shrunk compared to the same periods in 2022. In the beginning of 2022, we were still experiencing crazy-low interest rates while home prices continued their pandemic pace. About that same time, as inflation became rampant, the fed started raising their interest rate in hopes of cooling spending in the economy. Over the past 12 months, it seems we’re finally starting to see some of that as mortgage rates hover above 7%.

From a statistical standpoint, comparing the the start of 2022 to the start of 2023 was sensational as the number of home sales dropped significantly under the different market conditions. Comparing the white-hot start of 2022 with the higher interest rates starting 2023, it was easy to see why those numbers were so different between each year. As the interest rate hikes started in mid-2022 though, we saw a quieter market for the second-half of 2022, so the comparisons to a similar second-half of 2023 were more moderate. The third quarter did see some of those year-over-year gaps shrink but not in median price. Instead, that important stat has seemed to hover in-place as Sellers hold firm amid low inventory.

As we move into the end of 2023, I would expect this to remain the same as there is no sign of inventory numbers picking up. We may see a slight drop in the median price of condos due to several external factors, but overall, I’d still expect to see similar stats moving forward.

October 2023 Stats & Opinion

On a smaller level, October showed some promising numbers over 2022 that support some of things mentioned above. First, the median price for single-family homes was up 4.8% over the same month last year, but has bounced around the same price throughout the year. Home prices seem to have plateaued, especially versus the gains we saw during the pandemic, and that’s due to both a tighter inventory for Seller’s and higher interest rates for Buyer’s. On the condo side, it dropped 1.0%, not much of a change and both still near their all-time highs.

The most interesting stat for October 2023 is the year-over-year changes in closed sales on both sides. Versus the same month last year, the number of closed single-family homes is only down 4.1% and condos is down 8.3%. This is a big difference from the start of the year, where we were seeing 40% differences and proves the market changes that were happening overall in Q3. They are still super tight numbers with only 213 sold homes and 399 condos in October, but overall sentiment seems to be calming as both sides of our industry get used to these tighter markets.

It’s beginning to look a lot like the holidays

With November in full swing and the holidays ramping up, I can’t help but assume that we will finish out the year with the same moderate changes we’ve seen all year. Prices will hover around $1.1M and $500K, closed sales will be lower than 2022, and interest rates will hover as consumer holiday spending ramps up. It will be interesting to see how the economy reacts to prices during the spending season, and hopefully it will lead to more opportunities for real estate equity in 2024!

Whatever the case, I will be watching it all! I hope you have a good holiday season, and let me know if you ever need anything from me!

-Nick

May shows signs of “summer heat” as the market continues to suffer from inventory and interest rate concerns. Let’s take a look at the market statistics for May and see what conclusions we can draw!

[Read more…] about Monthly Real Estate Market Report – May 2023

Spring is March-ing along, and while the stats will show another sluggish month in our local real estate industry, the market mood has much more “spring” to it! Let’s take a look at the stats from last month try to interpret this VERY interesting market.

What the stats say

While single-family home prices rose over last month, they were down again versus last year. As mentioned last month, the market in the beginning of 2022 was on fire, so comparing the two years is “apples and oranges.” The most interesting number though was the number of days that homes are sitting for sale before they go into Escrow. That number shot up to 47 days on average last month, which is timing we haven’t seen since the condo market at the beginning of the pandemic. This should be an anomaly more than a trend, as inventory numbers shrunk versus last month. In the condo market, sales were up almost 20% versus last month but are down 33.1% year-over year. Prices are only down 3.4% versus February 2022, dropping slightly more than expected.

Interest rates rise

As the fed continues to raise the federal funds rate, mortgage rates struggle to stay below 7% nationwide. As the inflation numbers slowed during January, there was hope that would ease rate hikes, but not enough has been done to cool market activity. In the real estate industry, this has placed a lot of pressure on homebuyers, some of whom have lost 40% of their buying power versus the rates last year. You can see it reflected in the length of time on the market and plateauing median prices, as financed-backed buyers struggle to either recalibrate their expectations or exit the market entirely.

How interest rates affect Sellers

Buyers are not the only ones making decisions based on the rising interest rates. Home sellers are also adjusting their expectations because of this same pressure on Buyers. Less properties are being listed overall, as Sellers question the efficiency of the market they’d possibly be entering now. Some sellers are also feeling like they’ve “lost money,” comparing their situation to the market we had last year. Whatever their personal reason is, it’s continuing the drop in new listings on the market, tightening the little options that buyers have.