Many potential home condo and townhouse sellers in Hawaii have been wondering if they missed their chance to sell for top dollar now that the market has cooled off. If you’ve been wondering whether you missed your opportunity to cash in on the hyper inflated home prices of 2020-2021, read on to find out what the market is like now!
The Maui Real Estate Market Tanked.. But Have Home Prices Dropped?
It’s no secret that interest rates have more than doubled over the last year, and this has caused home sales to drop off a cliff. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that your home value has plummeted. Home values tend to move relatively slowly. We have seen sale prices cooling off, but we haven’t seen a huge drop yet. Maui home prices have dropped 13% since May, according to Maui Now. If you’ve been contemplating selling then you may have just enough time to cash in while there are still some buyers left in the market. This is due in part to the fact that many people that were wanting to buy a house in Hawaii recently were outbid by other buyers and are still looking today. The bad news is that many of those buyers cannot afford to offer as much today, since the higher mortgage rates in Hawaii have such a drastic impact on the monthly cost of homeownership in the islands. Of course rates have increased everywhere, but in places like Maui where home prices are often over 1 million dollars, the higher rates result in the monthly payment being thousands of dollars higher. Alternatively in middle America and more affordable markets, the difference may only be hundreds of dollars or maybe $1,000.
The other obstacle that we are starting to see most buyers and sellers struggle with are the appraisal values. We just sold a home in Waiehu, on the north shore of Maui just outside Wailuku for 970k. But the appraisal came in low. The appraiser valued the home at 930k even though our buyer was ready and willing to pay 970k! This is because appraisers know that the Maui housing market has cooled off, and that today’s values are not quite as high as they were a year ago. The buyer did not have the extra cash to cover the difference, so we had to make a choice: either drop our sales price by $40,000, or back out of the sale and try to find another buyer and hope that we wouldn’t have the same thing happen again (not great odds).
So as you can see, the market has certainly cooled off and prices have begun to settle down. But chances are that your homes value is still significantly higher than it was a few years ago. So while it may be frustrating to sell for 40k less than you could have gotten if you sold your house in 2021, I would recommend considering the old saying “don’t pass over dollars to pick up a penny”. Just image if it were 2007 and your home’s value had just dropped by 15%.. you may be tempted to wait until it comes back. But it would have fallen for years after that, and taken about 10 years before it was worth the same amount again. After adjusting for inflation, it just doesn’t make any sense to wait. Considering that it could take many years, or even decades for prices to get back to 2021 levels, I would strongly recommend selling now if you are on the fence.
How To Easily Sell Your Maui House Fast For Cash With No Commissions
If you think it may be time to sell, but you’d rather avoid the headaches, back and forth, fees, repairs, and long process that comes with listing on the market just call Maui Home Buyers! We’d be happy to research your property and let you know what kind of offer we could make you within 24 hours. If you’re not already familiar with our local Hawaii business, we provide an easier way to sell your house on Maui or anywhere in Hawaii. We buy houses directly from homeowners in Maui. Some of the advantages of working with us are that we pay all cash, so there’s no stress wondering whether the appraisal is going to come in low, you don’t have to pay any realtors commissions or fees, you don’t have to make any repairs or do any cleaning at all, and we can even help with any type of problems or obstacles around selling your house! Give us a call or text today to see how we can help!