LUVA Real Estate Blog

When the Hawaii Association of Realtors put a call out for Realtors to join together in beautification projects around the state for the annual Realtor Action Day, LUVA Real Estate agents jumped in to help at Konawaena Elementary School to assist in a campus improvement project. The LUVA team wheel-barrowed donated mulch, hacked out weeds and invasive grass to plant ti plants, and installed decorative pavers (while sweating A LOT!) on Saturday September 14th in Kealakekua for four hours to help the elementary school. Students are coming back to school today to find their entire courtyard transformed from run down crab grass and dirt that turned into mud most days, to new plants, delineated entry ways and space that exudes a sense of pride.

Mahalos to

With interest rates below 4%, the West Hawaii housing market is cooking along with the summer. Sales of condos and homes in North Kona are not only above where we were last year, but also above where the market was in 2017. (Median price for 2018 is skewed down because of the lasting impact of the four month eruption which ended in August, but affected the housing market until November.)

For single family homes in North Kona in August 2019, 49 homes sold, compared to 36 last year and 45 in August 2017, according to Hawaii Information Service statistics. For Condos, 39 sold last month, compared to 31 in 2018 and 35 in 2017. Year to date, single family home sales have increased 13.86% and for condos, the sales pace is up 14% from 2018.

For pricing,

The warm days of September in West Hawaii make you want to spend a little time in cooler climes around the island. This month there are many fun events in Holualoa and Waimea if you need a bit of a chill from sunning yourself on a warm beach in Kona! LUVA Real Estate agents can also show you new listings on the market in all temperate zones of West Hawaii! Just give us call!

WHAT: FIRST FRIDAY CELEBRATION

WHERE: Holualoa Village

WHEN: September 6, 2019

Holualoa Village galleries will feature new art and artists, tasty street eats and music all along Mamalahoa Highway through town during the monthly Art-After-Dark event from 5:30 until 8:30 p.m. The village block party features art and artists in over a dozen galleries and shops, as well as

   The future of the West Hawaii community is our young people. We look to them for solving the problems of our island for the next generation of   residents and visitors on this island.

In support of education and career growth, LUVA Realtor, Samar Obra, is spearheading the second annual Wahine Workshop on September 25th, 2019 from 5-6:30 at the Pink Mocha Cafe in north Kona. The Wahine workshop was founded by Samar, who grew up in Holualoa, graduated from Kealakehe High School, and later UH Manoa. After working in real estate in Kona she created the Wahine Workshop with the intent of giving back to the community that nurtured her to become a successful entrepreneur.

The Wahine Workshop is lead by women who are successful local business owners and

The headline here could read, “Home sales rise 88% year over year” which most likely would shock you. But they DID rise that much over last year because the numbers from July 2018 reflected what happened to the local real estate market due to the eruption of Kilauea, which started in May of 2018 and ended in August. However, even though home sales were at a relative stand still during the middle of the summer last year, the median price of homes did not dip that significantly, as sellers held their ground hoping for the eruption to end.

Thankfully, the lava stopped flowing on August 3, but it took another three months to get home sale activity back to where it was the year prior in the fall. Good news is that today, the market is healthy and is neither

If you have been to Hawaii Island and have said to yourself, “I could retire and spend the rest of my life here” you certainly would not be alone. With a growing amount of Baby Boomers in and heading into retirement age, LUVA Real Estate agents have seen quite an influx of retirees vs families and Millenials deciding to purchase a home or condo in West Hawaii.

Many of these new residents have saved to create a nest egg to live comfortably, or they are able to live off of investment income or pensions or some continue to work side jobs when they move here to keep the budget for travel and entertainment more fluid because of the notorious high cost of living in Hawaii. 

Did you know that Hawaii was ranked #2 by Kiplings as the best state to retire to?

Going back to school in the Fall is an exciting time for many school children across Hawaii, however, for some local children, single parents scramble to be able to afford new clothes and school supplies to send kids confidently into the next grade up.

LUVA Real Estate agent, Jonika MacDonald helped spearhead a fundraiser to purchase new outfits for school children along with the local chapter of the Young Professionals Networking Group (YPN) of the West Hawaii Association of Realtors for a “Back-to-School Bash and Clothing Drive” in late July. The Realtors joined forces with a variety of local business people to purchase and distribute clothing and supplies to hundreds of students from Kindergarten to 7th grade in West Hawaii.

“We reached out to

In this era of sustainability, many people have their eyes on living a completely sustainable lifestyle by living off the grid. And what better place they believe to do this than in Hawaii?

LUVA Real Estate agents have completed land sales to people ready to harness solar energy, use catchment tanks, plant their own fruit trees and cut the ties that bind most of us to monthly bills. Cutting the ties is also slicing the security of a network of infrastructure that makes our day to day life easier. Are you looking for this lifestyle?

The “off grid” life is one of doing more work for more freedom. It takes commitment to lessen your energy consumption and grow your food and capture your water. If you are considering this lifestyle, we offer resources

The summer doldrums are here and the housing market is cruising along without too many ups and downs.

Overall, LUVA Real Estate Realtors noted seeing homes placed on the market in the spring where the listing prices were elevated due to hopeful sellers. Now some of those homes have been sitting on the market for 60 days and prices are starting to soften.

LUVA Realtor, Linda Swanson, remarked that sellers right now need to be working with a knowledgable agent who has gone on broker tours and has studied the available inventory to get a really good handle on pricing in order to put a realistic listing price on a home when it first hits the market. “If the price is too high, it sits. And when all the local agents and their buyers see it, and realize

If you have been following the Hawaii County Bill 108 saga, you know many off island investors have been impacted by the new rules placed on short term vacation rentals on Hawaii Island. Property owners have been fuming for months over the loss of income and opportunity to rent out their homes if they are located outside of the approved resort zoned areas as soon as the law goes into effect in September 2019.

Recently, Oahu went even further to curb the rush to use hosted platforms such as AirBnB and VRBO when it passed an ordinance called Bill 89 on June 25, 2019. The bill was created to stem the negative effects to local neighborhoods where homes were being purchased by investors and turned into vacation homes. From the bill, it states that