Aloha Kauai Lovers:

 

I have to let you in on a little secret:  George Clooney is making a movie right here on Kauai as I write this.  And even cooler than that he's staying right here at the St. Regis while he's here.  Some very reliable sources saw the movie crew down on the beach in front of the hotel this morning.  Earlier my friend Danette saw George riding around the Princeville fountain in a dirty white Jeep. She said he went round and round the fountain and it took them like 20 takes to get it, doing circles as the cameras rolled, looking very suave and very handsome.  My little heart is broken, however, because George hasn't dropped by my office once to say "Hi", and frankly, there's been no call, no note, nada.  If I find out he bought something from Coldwell Banker instead of me I'm going to be really hurt.  That's right, George, if you're reading this, I might not even go see your movie.  No... wait, I take that back.. I will see the movie, but I won't tell anyone if it's really good. That's how hurt I am.

 

Why is it that we are so fascinated with celebrities?  They are just like you and me, no different.  They put their socks on one at a time.  They make stupid decisions once in a while, just like you and me.  They are not saving people's lives, mapping the human genome, studying the universe through a big atom collider.  They are simply reciting lines into a camera and telling us a story.  And yet we treat them like little Gods.  How weird that is when you really think about it?

 

Can you imagine Aliens studying us from another galaxy, watching us watch our TV's at night and wondering what the heck is going on down here.  It's a conversation that might go something like this.  Aliens to their Leader "Well, Leader, there appears to be intelligent life on Earth.  The Earthlings have built large cities and have made sophisticated advances in science, technology and agriculture.  However, there appears this strange fascination with a large flat object in their dwellings.  The object is flat and usually about 40-50 inches across with a little remote control device that the humans point at the object.  The humans spend their evenings intently studying this large screen, pointing the device at the little screen people without saying anything or sometimes even moving for hours at a time..  We've determined that the humans watching the screen must be worshipping the little screen people.  We think the little screen people are their Gods and humans are a very devout and faithful people to the little screen Gods".  Ugh..

 

Our Stats for March were very good.  Number of Sales increased to 60 from 21 from the month prior.  YTD we were above March 2009 by a whopping 46%.  Most of the gains appeared to be condos which rose from 6 in Feb to 39 in March.  This is a strong sign our investor market is getting back in the water as condo sales have lagged far behind home sales for most of the year.  Home sales in March were respectable at 14 up from 10 the month prior.  YTD for homes we are a little above last year when we sold 12 houses in March 2009.  Vacant land units sold were 7 up from 4 the month prior.  So the numbers on all categories are getting stronger but condos had a break out month.  When I look at where the condos are selling I see that they were significantly in every single region of the island.  Condos are back in vogue!  Hopefully vacant land will follow it's lead.  

 

Our Sales Volume increased exponentially from $9M sold over the entire island in Feb to $29M sold in March.  Further research shows that none of those sales included McMansions.  Those were all avg sales.  As a matter of fact our highest sale on the island for March was a distress sales in Seacliff for $1.9M.  When I research further I see that Princeville condo volume increased from $1.6M in Feb to $9.8M in March... wow!  That's a big jump.  When I look at what condos sold in Princeville I see 4 Nihilani's sold for under $565K and 2 distressed Alii Kai ocean view units also sold.  Poipu condos sales also went up dramatically from zero condos sold in Feb to almost $5M condos sold in March.  

 

Median Price for a house on the island went from $447K in Feb to $515K in March.  That's two months of increasing prices after a huge low of $335K in January, our lowest as far as I've been keeping track.  That's another good sign the market is improving.  Vacant land went from $237K in Feb to $350K in March.  $185K was our lowest land median price back in November 09.  Condos increased just slightly from $313K in Feb to $339K in March.  It's hard to tell when the buying frenzy on condos will cause the prices to significantly increase.  I still think there are some good deals out there.  I did have a buyer recently get beat out on an REO in Nihilani that had multiple offers.  The same buyer ran into the same problem with another Princeville house where there were multiple offers and we ended up having to offer full price and finally getting it.

The avg price for a North Shore home was $585K down from $640K the month prior.  North Shore condos went up from $370K in Feb to $528K in March.  

 

Well, as I was writing this one of the movie producers came by to look at my brochures at my office.  I asked him why George Clooney hadn't come by yet to say hello to me and he assured me he would, that's he's just been very busy with the movie.  I know he's lying but that's okay.  It felt kind of cool just to talk to someone that actually knows George Clooney.  So until next time, your Island Realtor, AnnMarie, writing from the St. Regis in Princeville, the movie star mecca of the South Pacific..