Fewer REO homes for sale in Kihei

Right now there are 6 pending REO home sales in Kihei and only 1 active listing. If you’ve been looking for a deal for a Kihei home you might be asking where did all the REO listings go? We monitor the South Maui real estate market very carefully and noted a significant milestone for bank owned homes in Kihei, see the chart below for a dramatic illustration…

Chart showing the number of Kihei REO homes listed for sale each month. Click on the image to enlarge the chart.

The chart above shows that, for the first time in 28 months, there were zero bank owned homes listed in May 2012. For the past 2 years we usually see an average of 5 Kihei REO homes come up for sale each month, of course some months that number is higher or lower but there’s always been at least 1 or 2 new listings.

Here’s another way to look at the changing inventory: if you compare the first 5 months of 2012 with the same period last year we see that the number of listed REOs in Kihei declined by 48%. This article is focused on the state of the Kihei foreclosed property market but the truth is that the number of properties available island-wide has declined by 37% (134 listings in January thru May 2011 versus 84 listings in 2012).

Are bulk REO sales causing a property shortage on Maui?

The big three words for real estate investors right now are “bulk REO sales” and it could be one of the best explanations why fewer bank owned properties are available to the public. Right now, in many metro areas of America, investor groups are negotiating directly with private banks to buy groups of properties and convert them for the rental market which is booming. In fact the Federal Housing Finance Authority has initiated a pilot program for properties owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do the same thing, although there are efforts to block that activity in California.

We don’t have any concrete data on REO bulk sale activity on Maui yet but we do see our inventory shrinking in a manner similar to other markets where bulk sales are happening.

Finding affordable homes in Kihei

At the moment monitoring the REO property list wont get you many results for affordable property in South Maui, the best bet is to sign up for our email alerts on Kihei homes under $500,000. Below is a recap of 10 recently updated affordable homes in Kihei, you can see the complete list of Kihei homes for sale under $500K.