Aloha Everyone:

 

So much has happened since my last newsletter it's hard to know where to begin.  We've already had The Olympics, The Academy Awards and American Idol is already down to their top 11.  Tell me where does the time go?  

 

I started watching the Olympics last month and was actually pretty bored in the beginning.  I just couldn't get into all that skating, skiing, curling and bobsledding stuff when suddenly I had that thing they call an "Olympic Moment".

 

It probably happened to you too. Listen to me and see if you know what I'm talking about.

 

It's that moment when you're bored to death watching the events, wondering why in the world everyone makes such a fuss over a bunch of athletes, about ready to change the channel to Nancy Grace when suddenly the skier you are watching goes into Olympic overdrive and is skiing so hard and giving it everything she's got, going for the biggie, the Gold Medal, practically killing herself to beat everyone's time, does beat everyone's time, then collapses at the end and starts crying and laughing hysterically while laying in the snow with her arms, legs and ski poles all akimbo, heaving from exhaustion and happiness.  Here I am in Kauai a gazillion miles away from Lindsay Vonn who's just skied and suddenly I am her biggest fan as the tears start streaming down my face too.  I am SO happy for her.  I LOVE HER! I feel like I just won the Gold Medal.  And she's crying and smiling and hugging her husband and I'm crying too and hugging my husband/boyfriend/whatever and suddenly I am so hooked on Olympic downhill skiing.  I can't wait for the next downhill event.  Can't wait!  Vail and Aspen.. Here I come!

 

It happened again with the ice skating.  There I was bored, bored, bored, skaters twirling and flinging their partners doing incredible ice rink acrobatics.. Yawn, bored to death....looking for the controller to switch to Nancy.  When BOOM!  It happens again.  Another "Olympic Moment".  You'll remember the story of the American skater who's mom tragically dies of a heart attack practically walking off the plane after she flew into Vancouver to watch her daughter compete in the Olympics.  I had heard the sad story too and thought, gosh darn of all the bad luck and super bad timing but really hadn't dwelled on it too much.  Then when brave young Joannie Rochette got on the ice to skate her single skate, trying to keep her composure, trying not to break down, knowing how important this one skate is to her and the world, and skating it so brilliantly, skating her heart out for her mom, we all knew. Wow.  Then at the end breaking down and crying and holding her hands over her heart.  I JUST LOST IT.  I could feel that poor girl's relief knowing that everything she had worked for up until now had just been accomplished and knowing her sorrow, her pain, of knowing her mom wasn't there to see it, or maybe she really was in spirit, but not in body (you know what I mean)  I was so emotional I could hardly breathe.  Tears streaming down my face, sobbing for this person I had never even met.  Phil had to stop me when I tried to call the US Olympic Committee office because I wanted to try to adopt Joannie and bring her to Kauai.  Which in hindsight would have been a kind of a not-so-cool thing to do since there's no ice rinks here on Kauai and she probably doesn't surf.  But, you know, she could learn.

 

Okay, okay, so I made the adoption think up.  I was just kidding, I didn't really do that.  But I WAS very emotional and so moved by the performances.  Joannie and Lindsay are in my heart now and I will love them forever.  And I know, and all the Olympic sponsors also know, I will never hesitate to buy a certain brand of cereal if I see their faces on the box.  

 

What's been going on with real estate in Kauai lately?    Looking at Number of Sales for Feb we had a "kerplunk!" really, really bad month, only 21 sales on the entire island down from 54 the month prior.  What happened? That's the second lowest number of sales since January 2009 when we had only 20 sales.  Did everyone drink too much spiked eggnog over Christmas here and forget to look at property and write some contracts?  I think so.  Yes, looking back I see that Feb is a historically stinky month for real estate on Kauai.  Stinky, stinky, stinky, the good news is March numbers will be better.

 

We sold 10 houses on the island down from 31 in January..  Eeek! We sold 4 vacant lots, down from 9; 6 condos down from 11.  On the north shore we sold 3 houses and 3 condos, no vacant lots.  Waimea didn't sell a single thing,  Nada.

 

Not everything is stinky though, our Year to Date numbers are encouraging.. Even with the lousy Feb so far in 2010 we've sold 75 properties, compared to 46 properties year to date last year this time, a nice 70% increase in unit's sold.  Hopefully, that trend will continue.  On the condo YTD front, we are about neck and neck with last year's numbers so condo sales are  not improving, just houses and vacant land (116% increase on land) at this point.

 

That's the one thing that give me encouragement when it seems like there is not a buyer to be found anywhere.  When I'm at my wit's end with this job the numbers show me that things are getting better, not getting worse.  If  I didn't have the stats and numbers to show the way I would probably be in another line of work by now.  But luckily for you I'm persistent and hardworking and I don't quit and besides I would make a really lousy waitress and we all know Kauai probably doesn't need another one of those.  

 

Sales Volume is down as well to $9M volume from $22M last month.... another ouch.  Another interesting note though is that we are almost identical to last year's Feb volume numbers which were way down from the month prior.  This seems so strange to me because we get so many visitors around Christmas that you would think 45 days later in Feb we would have some big closing numbers, but no that's not the case, it's actually the opposite... I actually stayed around this year because of the St. Regis occupancy numbers were so high but I think I will book a trip to Aruba over Christmas next year. Conga line anyone?

 

Median Sales Price for homes, what's going on with the prices?  Surprise! The number is good.   It's up from last month, $446K vs $335K.  Vacant land stayed almost the same as last month $237K and condos rose from $204 to $330K this month.  Last month's median home price of $335K stands as the lowest in two years.  With only 3 sales of homes on the North shore the median price was $640K very similar to the month prior of $627K..

 

Well that's all the real estate news on Kauai for this month.  It still remains a great time to buy with the low interest rates and big inventory.  If you're coming to the island and want to look at property please give me heads up and I'll set up some showings for you.  . Until next month, your Island Realtor from the very swanky lobby of the St. Regis Hotel, AnnMarie Hamilton, BIC 808-652-3511 http://www.surfkauaihomes.com