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Maui Voted #1 in Barrons 10 Best Places for Second Homes article!!!


BARRON’S COVER
By STEVEN M. SEARS

Prices of luxury real estate are finally starting to rise, as bargain hunters swoop in. Some of the best deals are in second homes with pricesoff as much as 40%.

AT LONG LAST, THE MARKET FOR LUXURY REAL estate is coming back to life.

Prices for primary residences, which plunged at least 20% from the peak in 2007, appear to have bottomed. In some of the snappiest locations, scattered bidding wars are breaking out and prices are turning upward.

There’s nothing like a stabilized economy and a huge rebound in stocks to send folks looking for the perfect manse. The return of hefty Wall Street bonuses hasn’t hurt, either.

With all that in mind, and with summer just around the corner, Barron’s sized up the market for upscale second homes, one of the greatest luxuries of all. We scoped out dozens of deluxe enclaves across the country, speaking with brokers, homeowners and others. Our conclusion: Now could be an excellent time to buy.

Prices are way down — 40% off the peak in some locations. Seemingly at or near bottom, they are starting to attract the first wave of bargain hunters — and not just families in need of R&R. Hard-nosed investors also are on the prowl, says Jan Reuter, head of residential real estate at U.S. Trust Bank of America Private Wealth Management: “We’ve seen an uptick in buying in just the last couple of months.”


1. Maui Consistently rated the “Best Island in the World” by travel experts, this Hawaiian beauty underwent a growth spurt during the past decade that some critics bemoaned as excessive. But the southern coast, anchored by the hamlet of Wailea, has weathered it all well. One of the first master-planned resort communities in the nation, it’s a balanced blend of understated gated communities, luxury resort hotels, three excellent golf courses, a tennis center and, of course, several crescent sandy beaches. Wailea has 500 single-family homes, and their views are stunning: lush, verdant hills, brilliantly blue ocean and, after the steamy sun showers, rainbows over the horizon.

Median Price: $1.5 million
Drop From Peak: 27%
Neighbor: Oprah Winfrey

Visit www.LuxuryGreenRealEstateMaui.com to see ALL Wailea/Makena Property for Sale
Meghan Clair
Realtor (S), EcoBroker
Coldwell Banker Island Properties
MauiGreenRealEstate@Gmail.com
(808) 463-8485 cell
(808) 874-8668 office

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Maui News: Resort real estate market might have hit bottom!!!

Maui News
March 10, 2010
By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

The state’s resort real estate market is not out of the woods yet, but Honolulu analyst Ricky Cassiday said he believes he has detected signs that it finally touched bottom in the last quarter of 2009.

Cassiday, whose consultancy, Data@Work, sees signs of a turnaround in the price slump. Average prices fell 20 percent in 2009. Despite the crash in the number of transactions, which dropped by more than half, Hawaii resort real estate prices kept going up.


Ariel View of Wailea, Maui Resorts

That tells a much different tale. Prices peaked in the second quarter of 2007 at $1.5 million and fell steeply to $1 million by the middle of 2009. Since then, they have stabilized…As prices have stabilized, transactions have soared, from about 125 per quarter to about 200 in the last quarter of last year.

Another sign that the market may be getting ready to turn is the appearance of bargain hunters. Whether you characterize them as thrifty shoppers, bottom feeders or vultures, Cassiday said he sees people with money looking around for deals.


The Ho‘olei condominium project in Wailea came on line after the resort real estate peaked in the second quarter of 2007. Now, it appears prices may have bottomed out, according to Honolulu real estate analyst Ricky Cassiday.

LINK TO BARGIN DEALS ON FULLY FURNISHED HO’OLEI UNITS

Link to Maui News Article in Full


CONTACT MEGHAN CLAIR REALTOR (S),ECOBROKER TO LEARN ABOUT THE BEST OPPORTUNITIES TO PURCHASE IN THE WAILEA/MAKENA RESORT MARKET

Meghan Clair
Realtor (S), EcoBroker
Coldwell Banker Island Properties
MauiGreenRealEstate@Gmail.com
(808) 463-8485 cell
(808) 874-8668 office

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Maui Homes Sales UP 48% since 2009!!!

Honolulu Advertiser Article
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Maui’s housing market experienced dramatic swings in sales of single-family homes and condominiums in January compared with the same month a year earlier.

There were 46 single-family home sales on the Valley Isle last month, a 48 percent rise over 31 in the same month a year before, according to the Realtors Association of Maui.

The strong gain coincided with big jumps in January sales reported earlier on O’ahu, Kaua’i and the Big Island. But for Maui the jump came off a dramatic year-ago low.

Sales in January 2009 marked a low for any month since February 1997, according to trade association data.

Also lackluster was the median sale price that was down 16 percent to $469,000 last month from $558,000 a year earlier.

The number of Maui condo sales was down 31 percent to 71 last month, from 108 a year earlier. Again, the year-ago figure was somewhat of an anomaly as the most for any month since 2007 when Hawai’i’s housing market was still hot.

The median price for Maui condos was down 47 percent to $424,000 last month from $805,000 a year earlier. Again, the swing was influenced by the Honua Kai project. In Ka’anapali, there were eight condo sales last month for a median $722,500. A year earlier, there were 69 sales for a median $1.17 million.

The median is a point at which half the sales were for a higher price and half for a lower price, so a large number of new luxury condos will push the median higher.

Link to full Article

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Clean Energy for Maui

Article by: Chris Mentzel, CEO of Clean Energy Maui LLC
Check out his articles in Maui Weekly or Online at www.CleanEnergyMaui.com

MAUI CAN LEAD THE WORLD IN BEING THE 1ST 100% OIL FREE ECONOMY!

With abundant natural energies, a small island topography that includes almost all of the world’s climate zones and an outdated oil-based electricity system that has become the nation’s most expensive, Maui is the ideal place in the world for developing and showcasing the clean energy future. By presenting our solutions to almost 2.3 million affluent visitors, we can inspire and change people all over the world.

By declaring it a county and state policy to make Maui oil-free by 2020, government can set the stage for a surge of innovation at the private and public level. Maui can be the center of the world for clean energy technologies, attracting visitors from all over the planet to study our model economy and bring technologies and investments with them.

No place on earth has a policy to become oil-free by 2020. Iceland with its leading hydrogen economy plans to be off oil in 2050. Sweden with its unique zeal for independence has a plan for 2020 to reduce oil use by 70%. In the U.S. the states of Hawaii and California are leading with their planned emission reductions.

Let’s go 100%! Maui can be the first oil-free economy in the world and benefit from the enormous publicity and worldwide attention that comes with it. We need to act now, before someone else has the same idea.

Meghan Clair
Realtor (S), EcoBroker
Coldwell Banker Island Properties
MauiGreenRealEstate@Gmail.com
(808) 874-8668 office
(808) 463-8485 cell