Kailua-Kona Real Estate Market Update: Condo Sales Pick Up | October 2026

Aloha, it's 365 Real Estate Minute with Eric and Julie Zimbalis and we are here to give you your October sales information for West Hawaii and you guys we got some news for you. We've got single-family home sales that are on par but lower priced and we've got condo sales. Condo sales went up 26 percent this month. So let's get into the news. All right. So, Julie, why don't you kick us off with what's happening in the single-family home market? Okay. So, first of all, I got to tell you guys, statistics will tell you something, but sometimes there's another story below it. So, what I have seen, and I'm going to tell you what the numbers are, but I'm going to tell you kind of what we're seeing, is that… Um, there's, there's two things are driving the market right now. Sellers are actually pricing their houses for the market that's happening now. Therefore those homes are selling faster than the ones that have been sitting on the market all summer long, hoping that things are just going to miraculously change. Um, so what's happening is at the lower end of the market is selling quickly. So it looks as if there has been a 20% drop in price of homes year over year, but that's because this time last year there were like a numerous $2 million houses selling We're this year. Under a million markets on fire. And then also what we're seeing, too, is the fact that the list to sale ratio is actually like 97 percent. And again, because prices are being put on the market as soon as they go on, they're going off. So we're getting closer to that, like almost like 99 percent, where houses that have been on the market a lot longer are actually going to be like more like 95, 96. So just keep that in mind as we're telling you market statistics. Okay, so what the numbers say, so you guys know, is, okay, so the median price last year was $1.320 million, and this year it's $1,049,000, there's your 20% drop. Right now, from January to October, year-to-date right now, there has been 317 closings, and last year it was 311 at this time, which is actually up 1.9%. Interesting. There you go. And then the median year to date was... Last year, it was $1,272,500, and now it's $1,180,000, which is actually a price decrease of 7.3% this year. So even though it was like year over year, it dropped 20%, what's happened is that basically the single family house market for this year has dropped 7.3%. Okay. Right. So that gives you a little bit more like if you're thinking about how you're pricing houses or what you're looking at in terms of overall what's happened to the market. And 7%, still, you know what, we're still in a balanced market. Interesting. Yeah. Where are we in the balanced market side? So we have five months of supply in October. So that, again, is near balanced overall. Inventory, we have 159 active homes on the market right now with a median of 86 days on the market. Now, get this. Here we go again. Digging into these statistics, it says 86 days on the market because there's like one that's five. There's a couple that were like $5 million and are sitting on the market forever. And then there was one that was a leasehold that I said, you know what, that's not fair. So in terms of what I pulled out to give you more of a better idea of what's happening. That 86 days on the market actually drops down exponentially to 14 for that price range I was telling you guys about, between like $800 and $1.6 million. Wow, wow. Okay, so we just also did 2025, right? And that was 40 days on the market. So if you pull out those two numbers, it sounds like their number is doing okay. Yeah, yeah, just because, again, it just seems, and, you know, just across the market, that people who want to get those houses sold. They're pricing aggressively, and the buyers are responding. So speaking of how this is actually going on the million-dollar home market, eight houses under a million dollars sold last year. Thirteen houses sold under a million this October. So that's why you're going to see a little bit of a price decrease because that part of the market, the lower part of the market, is selling faster than the higher end. Yeah, and I think we're lowering down a little bit to get into that section. Right, and I only saw, I think there was two $2 million houses on the market. this month, where again, it just seemed like that's what was mostly being sold early of last year. And so I don't even, I don't know if that just means that all those homes sold already or that people just aren't putting those kinds of houses, or you know what, they're probably just sitting is what they're doing. Yeah. And we'll know what happens more next month, too. That's the beauty of following us every month is we get a chance to see, you know, the trends of what's happening, how the lower segment is starting to do a lot better right now that it didn't do before. OK, then let's talk about what's happening in the condo market. OK, so in the condo market, first of all, there are 164 active listings in the condo right now, and the median sales price is $5.50. And interesting, in 2025, it was also $5.50. So the price really hasn't changed that much. Closed sales has gone up 25%. It's 24 this month and it was 17 last year, a difference of 26% gain from the year before, right? And the days on the market was 44 days on the market for this year and 75 for last year. And what we've been seeing lately is that the condo market all summer long was stagnant and was just really kind of dragging. And what we're starting to see now is we're starting to see it pick up a lot. And we're seeing, I just saw one today that sold in four days, which is, you know, reasonably priced condo at Kona Sea Ridge. And it sold in a short amount of time. It just shows you that that is changing and moving forward. We have a 97% sales-to-ratio in 2025, and this year we have 94%. So the prices of condos have – it's interesting that the median price is staying the same, but in general, a lot of them are coming down on top of it. Yeah, 94%. That's a 6% sale there, you guys. But we did see quite a few condos get that. $30,000, $50,000 price cut in the last few weeks. And so what people are seeing is that when you're a condo owner and you're seeing that there's inventory all around that's not moving, When you have to sell, you're going to cut your price. Yeah, and I think what's causing, you know, of course, the issue with condo sales is, of course, the question is, are there going to be a lot more rentals? Are you going to be able to rent it? It's the other question. Can you get your money out of it? And the other thing that everybody's really concerned about condos right now is the HOA fees, right? And what's happening here in Hawaii right now, and I guess it's happening all over, is that it's getting really expensive to build things, right, and fix things. It used to be not so bad, but just getting the material here and getting the contractors and all those kinds of things, Make it definitely tough. And that definitely falls under the HOA part of things. Oh, yeah. In terms of maintenance. Yeah, maintenance. And like example, there's some condos that need some big projects. And if all of a sudden that project went from a million to two million, it definitely makes makes a big difference. Yep. So when we have done videos around how to pencil out of condos. It doesn't pencil when you have $1,600 in HOA fees when you had started five years ago with $800. Right. So the prices have to come down to make so it will pencil, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, so the counterprices are coming down. But also, you know, it also determines whether you're going to be using and living this full time or you're going to be using this as a vacation rental, right? Because at least the vacation, it kind of sucks up a little bit and makes it a little easier to swallow some of those big... Pass on to the consumer. You can't pass on because there's so much in there. But, you know, if you're going to rent it long term or you're going to live in there, all of a sudden you're starting to look at that, you know, $1,600 HOA fee. You're starting to think, oh, that's a hard one to swallow on a regular basis. So that's kind of why what happened with the condos is slowing down. Can we talk about condo insurance just a little bit for just a second? Yeah, go ahead. Right? As you know, the condo insurance spiked after the Lahaina fire, and it got to be really expected. And then what has happened recently, paying attention or haven't heard before, is that the prices of insurance have come down to a more, they were concerned that we were uninsured in Hawaii and there was these different issues. So they really kind of wanted to, I think they wanted to get their money back after what happened there. So they really made a large price adjustment for Hawaii. And now it's kind of coming back down again. So now we're even seeing HOA complexes lowering their HOAs because they're getting a better deal on insurance. And they're not quite so afraid of what's going to happen. But some of the smarter complexes are only lowering it partway and taking that money and putting it in the reserves. Because that's also a big thing is making sure that there's enough reserves in there for different parts. Right, and Fannie and Fannie Mae are actually requiring more condos across the country. to have more in their reserves anyway. So this was actually a smart move by the Hawaii people. Right. And, you know, they're talking about that, you know, Fannie Mae asking to make sure that there's more reserves, to make sure that things are covered. I personally think that's a good deal because, you know, nobody wants an HOA fee, an HOA that is on the edge. Right. And then have some big project come and really, you know, because that's when that's when assessments happen. Yeah. And if all of a sudden you get a big assessment, twenty five or thirty thousand dollars, that's kind of a definitely difficult financial pain. And also some of the complexes that we've talked to, some of the people actually that we've sold houses to have turned into like the president of the HOA. Okay. Fiscal responsibility is the utmost importance because it is an investment and you want to make sure that you don't end up being underfunded. Like you said, when something comes up and especially like now, just so you guys know what the condos department in this in Hawaii County. All the hurricanes, even the Kona Lows, the condo complexes were not affected. We didn't have any massive building falling down. The trees didn't fall down on the condos. All the stuff that happened at Mauka where we had crazy power down and all the things, the condos sailed through. We're definitely smooth. I'm going to add one more thing to that, which is kind of interesting. One thing that's interesting about here in Kona, all the condos are on a lee drive, essentially. I mean, you can give or take. Um, and what's... What's nice about the Big Island is that we have a lot of lava. So you're not having, the condos are not on white sandy beaches where the sandy beaches can erode away and get to it. It's lava. And the beauty about lava is it doesn't care whether the wave hits it or not. You need a lot of waves. I mean, you probably need a hundred years of waves before stuff's actually going to happen to that, before that lava. Because we're seeing that people in California are seeing that there's a lot of erosion going on. It's taking the beachfront homes out. And so that's not happening here. And even, I was just watching on the news in Mexico. condo that complex is on a beautiful beach and everything. And the, you know, the sand was way back and then it came up and came up and came up and now that whole building just fell into the ocean. Really? Yeah. Wow. And it was too close at the end of the day. But at least we're not having those issues here. Yes, we're on a lava ledge. So that's a good thing because we want you guys to know kind of what's happening around everywhere else, like that you might be by condos and the resort experience, that at least that's going for us. Yeah, we might have the HOA fees a lot, but at least your condo complex is actually going to be changed. But I'd be curious, you know, we're not alone in this with a high HOA fees. I mean, I assume throughout the rest of the country there are issues going on with it. It's just the nature of, you know, fixing things and making things. Right, labor insurance. And then also with the condos... So we actually have gotten actually kind of a few calls from people looking to sell their condos lately. So I think that people are still saying, you know what, I want to put my money someplace else or I want to do something different. So as there is still a lot of inventory on the market, there's opportunities here for buyers. Yeah, I think, you know, I think we're personally I kind of think we're in a kind of a low spot because there's a lot of people that need to unload their condos. And there's opportunities and not only condos, actually single family homes, too. If you're a buyer of any kind, it seems to be that we're constantly Kind of in a lull, I mean, with this, what seems to have happened is that there seems to be some, I don't want to say hope, but that the market is kind of stabilizing after our midterm election. So because of that, there seems to be an idea that maybe, you know, it might be a good time to start thinking about buying a house or buying a condo. Yeah, yeah. I think that there was two things that have been holding up when we say... Buy a house now. The two things that people keep talking about, maybe the interest rates will go down. And that was the case, I think, two years ago when you were wondering, is it going to drop to 5, 4, whatever. That's not happening right now. It's holding pretty solid around 7.25. We have an entire mortgage update with Travis on the overall market update, so if you guys want to see that. But also, when people are thinking... I was thinking, The uncertainty of the economy and the elections is now over. I think that people are holding on, waiting for that to happen. And so now we at least have a clear direction, likely or not, at least it's done and we can move forward. And also when you see our TT&T, the overall market update, the concept of what's happening with the data centers. I was convinced that the Anthropic was going to have an IPO and a whole bunch of newly minted millionaires were going to sell their houses in the Bay Area and move to Hawaii. At least for a part time, get away from it. Yeah, but it's not going to go into IPO right now. There's a lot of people now still waiting for that. But the concept of people always thinking about retiring and then holding off, just wanting to see what was going to happen. Now is your move, you guys. This is the time to get off and come to buy a house in Hawaii. Let's talk about interest rates for just a second. You know, and this goes back to that. You know, for a while, the interest rates were 3%. So everybody was like, oh, my gosh. So then now that we're up to, I guess we just talked to Travis today. It was over 7, and now we're seeing in the 6s again. He says for some people, he can do 6s. OK. It's around 7. Right around 7. Yeah. And I think everybody was for the, For the last at least year and a half, they've been thinking, oh my gosh, the interest rates are just going to come back down to a normal rate. And the question is, a lot of people now have just gotten... used to the idea that this is kind of the new average. And, you know, there's an idea that you could, you know, even if you get the house and you have to finance it at seven, in the future you could, and it goes down, you could always refinance. There are opportunities for that. It's not that bad. And I think that's kind of the way you have to look at it. It used to be the old, you know, marry the house and date the rate. Yeah, date the rate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, you should be able to afford it as soon as you buy the house. Yeah. But the good news is on this one, again, is that we don't have massive fluctuations in the mortgage market right now. Yeah. But the good news is that unemployment is going down. So therefore, there's more jobs being created. Therefore, the mortgage market is responding with a little bit lower interest rates right now. So that's good news. So between the election being over and the unemployment going down and some general feeling like now's the time to just do the thing I want to do. I think we're doing pretty good right now as we're heading into the holidays. Yeah, and so as, I don't know if you guys know, but as we come into the holidays, this is sort of our high season, right? Which is kind of, it's a joke because usually spring is the high season at most other places. But here in Hawaii, it's the high season. And the reason being is that when you start getting cold and start thinking all the things at home, you think Hawaii might be a really good place to go. That's right around this time of year as you guys start to put on your super sweaters and all that kind of stuff like that. Yeah. So we're going in with a good attitude. And I'm curious to see, because with the opportunity... Let's see if more people come in and decide to start buying some things up. Right, right, right. And then also, I've been talking to some people who, you know, they watch Zillow like it's, you know, like a part-time job. And what they might be seeing is different condos in the different complexes going for different amounts of money. And what we wanted to tell you guys is that if you look at... The condo market, in a complex you might be interested in, you see what the last similar unit sold for and how long was it listed. And then you can look at the monthly dues and what they cover and whether there are any assessments to factor in. What happens sometimes that you guys don't know is if it looks like a condo complex, like five or six people are putting their houses on the market really quickly, there's usually an assessment coming up. So keep an eye on that. And then also is that some people are vacation rental owners and they're paying a lot more for their taxes. Yeah. Instead of getting hit with another big tax bill in January, they might be trying to get rid of their condos now to avoid getting that tax bill in January. So that might be another reason why there's a little bit more of a push because condos that have people who live in here full-time, like Leilani, those are coming on and off pretty average, steady right now. But because most people who live there are full-time residents and you can't use them as short-term vacation rentals, those behave differently than the investment condos that are usually on Leilani Drive. Yeah. And that's something to think about. You've got to be careful what you're looking for. Is it investment or is it, you know, long term? The prices will definitely kind of reflect that. And there are complexes that fit, of course, fit both better. Right, right. And so there's kind of like an apples and apples and oranges going on that sometimes you might not know if you're not familiar with the condo market. So that's another reason why you call your friendly realtors and they tell you about what complexes are doing, how their reserve studies are. We have been able to sell. See all these different kinds of, you know, with the stories you could say, we have friends that have purchased into these complexes. We've sold and bought for our clients. So we have some in-depth information about what's going on with a lot of the, yeah. Okay. So the funny one we get is there, there's one, there's one complex and it's, uh, it's in Kona and it is going, it has, it's a leasehold and it's leasehold is coming up in right around the mid, uh, 2030, something 32 or 34, somewhere around there. And you can buy a condo for about $180,000 now, which is just amazing. And everybody says, oh my gosh, I don't care if it's a leasehold, I'll take the condo. It's a cheap price. Well, the downfall is when it hits that time, they're slated to take a bulldozer and bulldoze the entire complex. So it's kind of one of those, you're more renting than you are actually buying a condo. So these are things, whenever you see that the old price is too good to be true, there's a reason for that. Right. In fact, a gentleman called us yesterday, he's going to put a condo in, I don't know Kona Makai for $315,000 and we just sold one for $600,000 and you're like, wow, what kind of a deal is that? Well, the one we sold for $600,000 just got turned into fee simple, meaning they own it. forever. And the leasehold means that you're paying the leasehold fee on top of the HOA fees and you don't really outright own that condo. So these are the kinds of like, you know, nuances that you guys need to know about if you're thinking about buying condos. Now for single family homes, real quick, let's talk about that real quick, that there seems to be a movement of some people deciding that the house they bought in 21-22 isn't working for them. So yeah, let me fill you in on this just a little bit. So things were so tight during that time that a lot of people were buying sight unseen and just going there and just saying, I don't care what it costs, I'm buying this house because I need to get there. And a lot of people, it's not that they didn't do the research, there just wasn't a lot out there, you know, where they really wanted to be and what they could afford are two different things. They just bought the first thing they could, right? And now they have the opportunity, right, to go, well, that didn't quite fit for me and so maybe we should sell this one and buy something that's more appropriate. Right. And then this is interesting. All boats float here, guys. What we've also seen is sellers saying this was my dream home. I just sunk $150,000 to $200,000 of upgrades into this house now because of health issues or whatever reason. Now I have to sell it. I'm mad. That had happened all, like most of this year. Now sellers are starting to say it is what it is. Yeah, before it was, well, I think they're getting used to the idea that prices are not what they were at the height. I mean, we've come down some, right? And to sell your house, you have to actually take that and say, okay, well, here I am. And if you bought at the height and you have to sell a little ways down, there's going to be some money loss on it. Right. But if you say in this market, if that's part of you, because all boats float. Single-family house pricing is coming down, and so if yours comes down, and the other one comes down too, you're probably doing this. So we're seeing houses right here on our street dropping by $50,000 to $100,000 right now. Okay, I have a funny story about that. It was last week. I saw a $150,000 price drop, I saw a $100,000 price drop, and I saw a $50,000 price drop in one week on the MLS, and you're like, that's some pretty serious price dropping. Just, you know, give you an idea that those bigger houses up there are trying to find where the price is. Right. And so what a great opportunity for you to negotiate. So we also do that for you as well. We can tell you exactly. Usually what we do is we call the agent and say how motivated is the seller. And then they tell us what the story is. And then we also know that people right now, especially if the house has been on the market for, let's say, more than 70 days, there's usually room for negotiation. So in that sense, I'm telling you guys this is a great market to actually buy in if you're actually thinking about it. And I'm not here to tell you a house, but actually I am. But if you want more information, we can also get you all these numbers. I've been writing more blog posts on our 365hawaiiari.com about statistics and about market trends and about stories. Go check out my blog. Also, we're going to talk to you guys real quick about a little bit of what's happening around Kona because that lifestyle aspect of life is good. Oh, definitely. So, yeah, with that, we just finished a lengthy video on downtown Kona. We have 50 minutes of all the things that are happening downtown. We don't have huge items this month, but a lot of little things, and so you can really get a handle of the nuances of what it's like to live in a small town. Right, and so we have new construction projects. We've got new businesses. We talk about kind of like what's happening. So, check that out if you want to know more about what's happening in Kailua-Kona. Also, one thing we have coming up this week is the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. So, that's always kind of a fun thing. So, if you're seeing this, it runs for like 11 days, 10 days or whatever. So, get out there and get yourself some coffee and check out the calendar of events. There's tons of things to do. You can do coffee competitions. There's going to be, you know, the pageant, good stuff. Also, one of the things that's coming up... Put it on your calendar, is that we have the Christmas parade the first Saturday of December. If you are liking to do different things around the island, the Hilo Christmas parade is actually earlier. It's like November 29th this year. And also we do an email that we send out to our people on our list about upcoming events. So if you want to get on that list, join our Ohana. Again, go to 365HawaiiRE.com and subscribe, and you'll get two emails, one for real estate information and one for upcoming events and lifestyle. How much do we rock? We rock. We cover a lot of stuff, definitely. Sometimes, you know, if she starts naming off all the things that we do and do and everything like that, I'm all, no wonder I'm tired. You know what I mean? There's just a lot going on. And we're putting shorts on the Instagram account, 365 Hawaii Living. So if you're on Instagram, I'm putting stuff up there because Eric also puts that on our YouTube channel. Yeah. So we're the news crew in a variety of different senses, but we're also your local realtors. So what else do you want to say? I think we're good. Okay. So thanks, you guys, for... You know what? I'm telling you. Tell them what the subscription numbers are. So we started doing these, and we were getting, like... Like, six or seven hundred views? Yeah, we've been averaging, the good news is we've been kind of, this has been kind of growing. Uh, this, this, this, this particular, this, this segment, the, uh, West Hawaii update, uh, we've been at six or seven hundred is kind of a normal one, which, you guys, I know in YouTube land that's, that's very small, but remember, we're kind of a niche community here, so we've, and you wouldn't want to watch these numbers unless you were really into what's going on, and now we're seeing double those numbers, and so it's interesting to see what's, what's going on, because there's, there's an interest to seeing what's going on in this. Well, now it's just that, going back to this, guys, with 1,400 people looking, That means there are buyer eyeballs on what's happening in this market right now. So, again, as soon as this market really cracks open, there's going to be, I think, more people coming in. So get ahead of that. Because usually in January we get those kinds of eyeballs, but to have it in fall, I think people are wondering. They're waiting and looking. They're waiting and looking. So with that, we say, aloha.