Sales may hit $1.5B for resort homes

By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer

Sales of resort homes in Hawai'i are likely to have hit a record $1.5 billion in 2003, according to a local market researcher.

That would be a 23 percent increase from the $1.2 billion in resort home sale revenues in 2002.

Market analyst Rick Cassiday projects the total for the year based on the first nine months of sales at master-planned resorts. He calculates that 2,056 resort home sold last year, up 27.4 percent from 1,614 in 2002.

That includes 699 sales on Maui, 508 on the Big Island, 657 on Kaua'i and 192 on O'ahu.

The average price statewide, according to his 2003 estimate, will be close to $803,096, up about 6 percent from $757,810 in 2002.

Cassiday expects resort residential lot sales in Hawai'i to hit $435.9 million in 2003, up from $368.2 million in 2002.

Elarka Yuen, principal broker at The Coconut Plantation, a resort at Ko Olina on O'ahu, is seeing the demand. She said there is a waiting list of more than 50 people for the next release of 11 units at the community.

"There's a bump in the baby-boomer market that is downsizing or approaching retirement and looking at this as an opportunity to acquire their dream property in Hawai'i," she said.

The average price for a resort home in 2003 was highest on the Big Island at about $1 million and lowest on O'ahu at $439,950, according to the projections. The average on Maui was estimated to be $858,993, and on Kaua'i it was $563,845. The projections show the highest price paid for a resort home was about $13.4 million on Maui.

Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470 or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.