October 2016 Kaanapali Alii Update

Halloween Maui Style

Kaanapali Alii Update 2016

LOCAL MAUI NEWS

Aloha Kaanapali Alii Owners!

The Hawaii Tourism Authority has introduced Hawaii VR , a virtual reality app enabling anyone with a smartphone to transport themselves to the Hawaiian Islands without leaving their living room! When you open the app, you become a paraglider floating above the Islands. Right now you can tour Oahu and The Big Island of Hawaii on HTC Vive and iPhone. Or download HTC Vive on Steam here , and on the iOS App store for iPhone using the search: Hawaii VR. A version for Oculus Rift and Android smartphones will be introduced soon with the launch of the virtual tour for all four islands on all platforms.

That epic view of Peahi isn't going anywhere. Maui County just purchased 267-acres of land surrounding that famous surf break on Maui's north shore known as Jaws. Officials pledged NO development. Conde Nast Traveler just released Awards for Hawaii.

The Kaanapali Beach Hotel here on Maui made it into the top 5 for "Top Hotels in Hawaii". And in the category "The 30 Best Resorts in Hawaii" Maui took all top 5 spots: The Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, Montage Kapalua Bay, Wailea Beach Villas, Hotel Wailea and Travaasa Hana.

The Lahaina Animal Farm is under new ownership and has been re-named Maui Animal Farm. The daily petting zoo will continue, with plans for a West Maui Equestrian Center offering riding lessons, therapeutic riding programs, and eventually polo matches on the West Side. Our burgeoning craft beer industry made their mark at the 35th Annual Great American Beer Festival in Denver. Out of 7,227 entries, Maui Brewing Company earned a Gold Medal and Kohola Brewery took the Bronze.

CURRENT MARKET ANALYSIS

Hawaii real estate continues to be a big draw for celebrities and athletes alike with such well-known figures as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Bette Midler, Pierce Brosnan, Oakley founder James Jannard, Chuck Norris, and Ben Stiller owning homes or land in the Islands. Now add the creator of the hit TV series "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette". Michael Fleiss has just purchased an oceanfront estate for $2.3 million. Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw just purchased a luxury apartment at the Mauna Kea Resort, for $1.3 million. And if you were saving your pennies to make a run at Julia Roberts' oceanfront estate ... too late. It's in escrow with the asking price of $19.5 million. But keep stuffing your piggy bank and maybe you can grab a portion of the late "Jurassic Park" author Michael Crichton's estate marketed for $45 million. Need a little more room? You can get a 2 acre parcel across the street for only $10 million.

Okay ... back to earth.

Here on Maui, the median sales price of single-family homes for September was $667,500. That's down $4563 from August, but UP $94,200 from September of last year. T he number of single-family homes sold was 82 ... that's 14 units less than August, and 15 units less than the 97 units sold at the same time last year. Condominium sales didn't fare much better. There were 98 units sold in September - that's down 26 units from the previous month, and down 12 units from the same time last year. The median sales price was also down ... $377,000 in September compared to $420,000 in August, and also down from the $399,500 price tag a year ago. Inventory has decreased from Jan. - May (High Season) numbers. Canadian investors have been big participants in Maui's real estate market in years past, however the current Canadian Dollar exchange rate (.75 US $) may motivate Canadian investors to sell, rather than buy OR sell and reinvest in other Maui properties.

Let's take a look at Kaanapali Alii:

Status	Unit	Bd	Ba	List $	Sold $	Close
Active	2-204	1	2	1,100,000
Active	2-404	1	2	1,400,000
Active	2-604	1	2	1,500,000
Active	3-103	1	2	1,680,000
Active	1-502	1	2	1,725,000
Active	4-1103	1	2	1,750,000
Active	1-702	1	2	2,075,000
Active	3-1101	1	2	2,250,000
Active	4-205	2	2	1,485,000
Active	3-404	2	2	2,645,000
Active	3-304	2	2	2,975,000
Active	1-903	2	2	3,250,000
Active	1-205	2	2	3,400,000
Active	3-706	2	2	3,850,000
Active	3-705	2	2	4,500,000


Escrow	3-702	1	2	1,650,000


Sold	1-104	1	1	1,295,000	1,050,000	04/25/16
Sold	4-203	1	2	1,300,000	1,200,000	04/29/16
Sold	1-102	1	2	1,344,000	1,344,000	08/26/16
Sold	2-802	1	2	1,400,000	1,400,000	05/02/16
Sold	1-401	1	2	1,500,000	1,435,000	04/29/16
Sold	2-1001	1	2	1,950,000	1,950,000	09/27/16
Sold	4-802	1	2	2,250,000	2,100,000	06/27/16
Sold	4-902	1	2	2,275,000	2,075,000	02/10/16
Sold	3-1004	2	2	1,725,000 LH	1,650,000	07/22/16
Sold	1-505	2	2	3,425,000	3,000,000	08/08/16
Sold	3-1005	2	2	5,000,000	4,600,000	03/31/16

Figures from Realtors Association of Maui

TOURISM

The Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) is doubling down on their efforts to attract millennials. At the outset of my update I told you about the Virtual Reality app for the Islands. And without disclosing my age, let me just say we're about to enter the twilight zone. The HTA has partnered up with Expedia in a new global marketing campaign promoting travel to Hawaii through facial-recognition software . "Discover Your Aloha" will expose users who visit its website to videos featuring drone footage and measure their reactions. Based on the reactions, the facial recognition algorithm identifies the personal preferences of the viewer and produces a customized travel recommendation. Looking at the visitors who were actually here, in person, last week ... Statewide, the average hotel occupancy of 82.3% was 2.6% higher than the same week last year. The average cost for a room was also up 3.3% to $231.18. Being the stellar Island we are ... Maui's occupancy rate increased 5% to 80.4% with the room rate increasing 7.8% to $267.69.

No secret - I keep my vacation rentals with Maui Beachfront Rentals . Why? Because I get the best return with none of the hassles. No more trying to cover all my bases with a local rental agency here plus extra advertising on sites like VRBO, HomeAway, Flip Key and others to try and get a decent return. Not any more ... they hit it all and at no additional cost to me! See if you too can get more bang for your buck with MBR.

TRAVEL

Hawaiian Airlines "Premium Cabin" tickets are now on sale for flights between Hawaii and Narita, Japan; Brisbane and Sydney, Australia; and Auckland, New Zealand. They're fully reclining seats with multiple power ports, in-flight entertainment system with over 100 hours of movies and TV, and a Hawaiian themed product bag with everything you might need to make your flight comfy-cozy.

And after nearly three decades of service, the Molokai-to-Maui ferry will make its last run this Friday. The federal government awarded Makani Kai and Mokulele airlines annual subsidies for four years totaling $4.5 million which allowed them to offer extremely low fares that the ferry just couldn't compete with.

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They call it THE MARDI GRAS OF THE PACIFIC and yes, Halloween is quite a big deal here on Maui. People come from all over the world to celebrate. This year they're expecting 35,000 people! You can get serious about your costume and be up for thousands of dollars in prizes, or just make it a spectator sport! I've tried to consolidate all the info below.

FRONT STREET CLOSED

3:30 - midnight

4:30 6 - 8:45

Keiki

kids

Costume Parade

Costume Contest Signup

pioneer inn store

Banyan Tree Park

6:30 - 9:30 7 - 9 9:30

Music/Dancing Costume Contest Winners Announced

Campbell Park

Noon - 10 4pm 5 - 9

Official Halloween Tees

for sale Family Fun Music/Dancing

*Halloween Transportation Schedule*

Halloween Express

Lahaina Parking Lot

Front St/Prison St

Tickets Must Be Bought In Advance

$7 each way/Cash Only (808) 667-9193

Wailuku - Lahaina
Kihei - Lahaina

War Memorial Gym Parking Lot Kihei Aquatic Center

Departs Wailuku: 6:00, 6:30 Departs Kihei: 4:30, 5:30, 6:00, 6:30

Departs Lahaina: 10:30, 11:30 Departs Lahaina: 9, 10, 11, Midnight

Extended Maui Bus Schedule

Kaanapali Islander Route 25 Napili Islander Route 30

Regular Schedule til 3:30 Regular Schedule til 9pm

Then every 30 min from Wharf Center Then every hour from Whalers Village

Stopping at Papalaua/Wainee, Last bus at 11pm

Lahaina Cannery Mall and Whalers Village

Free Shuttle Service

Ask concierge from your hotel

Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resorts

Sheraton Maui

Westin Maui Resort

Click here for more information Halloween Hotline: (888) 310-1117

MORTGAGES

Although the Feds decided NOT to increase the bank's key interest rate at last month's meeting, Dean Rathbun of Avis Mortgage considers a rate hike increasingly likely in December, if conditions don't change before then. A couple of weeks ago mortgage application volume, for refinancings and home purchases, still managed to squeeze out a .6% increase. That translated to an 18.5% increase higher than a year ago. This week, for the second week in a row, mortgage rates moved higher. This time, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage inched above 3.5% for the first time since June. Dean says that mortgage rates seem to be catching up to Treasury yields and returning to pre-Brexit levels.

GREEN

Hawaiian Electric Co. is now offering residential customers the option of enrolling in a 2 year pilot program that rewards them for using more power during the day when solar production is highest. Currently on Maui the rate is 26.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kw). Under the time-of use- plan it'd be 13.7 cents kw from 9am-5pm, 39 cents kw 5-10pm, and 32.5 cents kw from 10pm-9am. Hawaiian Electric Co (HECO) is also going to test out various ways to store energy. One of them is a project to test the capability of a flywheel system. HECO is also seeking approval to develop a $67 million, 20-megawatt solar energy farm at Joint Military Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The joint project with the Navy would provide the lowest cost renewable energy project in the state ... at 9.54 cents per kw.

A couple of California companies are planning energy projects in Hawaii. JLM Energy wants to develop a $10 million energy project here on Maui that involves solar AND storage systems. They've already installed 20 projects across the Islands with 25 more in the works. REC Solar plans to install nearly 20 megawatts in projects that are expected to come online early next year. They've already installed projects totally 82 megawatts, a figure expected to grow to about 100 megawatts by the 1st quarter of 2017. Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind Inc. (out of Oregon) plans to develop a 400-megawatt project 10 miles southeast of Barbers Point. Foreign money is investing here too. Norway-based Statoil , plans to develop a major wind energy project in federal waters off the coast of Hawaii. They'd join 2 other companies to develop the $1.6 billion offshore wind farm. Denmark's Alpha Wind Energy also plans to develop a 408-megawatt project in waters in the same general area.

MAUI HAPPENINGS

10/29: Wooden Crate Cabaret Lumeria with Mike Love dinner show

10/31: Lahaina Halloween info

11/4-5: 3rd Annual Made in Maui County Festival info

11/5: Maui Yoga Festival details

11/11-13: Maui Chefs Invitational schedule

11/12: 2nd Annual Dance Maui info

11/24: Turkey Trot Run register

Maui OnStage Iao Theater tickets

11/25-12/11: Mary Poppins

Maui Arts & Cultural Center

tickets

10/25: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert & dance

10/27: Martha Redbone - Bone Hill: The Concert

10/28: Haunted Hawaiian Nights: Storyteller Lopaka Kapanui

10/29: Hall & Oates concert

10/30: Mike Epps comedy

11/4 Kumu Kahua Theatre: "Uchina Aloha" play

11/6: Honoring Tradition hawaiian music chant hula

11/10: An Evening with the Maori Quartet

11/11: Morgan Heritage reggae concert

11/18: Nahko & Medicine for the People concert

11/19: Billy Currington concert

11/19: The Dover String Quartet

11/23: John Mayall in concert

11/25: Adventure Club - Leid in Hawaii

11/26: "Duke" 1 man show on Duke Paoa Kahanamoku

11/27: Maui Choral Arts Yule Be Home For Christmas

Pioneer Inn - Lahaina

(808) 661-3636

"An Evening with Mark Twain" 11/6, 11/27

"The Old Man and the Sea" 11/13

"An Evening with Albert Einstein" 10/28, 11/20

"Dylan Thomas: A Child's Christmas in Wales" 12/4, 12/11

The holiday season is officially beginning. Enjoy Halloween, and next month we'll look at Thanksgiving Maui Style. In the interim, I hope you keep your Berkshire Hathaway Team in mind for all of your Maui real estate needs. Sid is getting to know a lot of you personally, and the feedback I'm getting is that you're very impressed with the decades of experience in the resort and 2nd home markets, that he brings to the table. We are still the only Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate Brokerage on Maui ... but now with two offices to serve you ... Lahaina and our new Wailea-Makena office.

Mortgage rates are still low. So if you're thinking about purchasing another property, call your Berkshire Hathaway Team - we're available to you 7 days a week. If you're considering selling your property, we'd be happy to provide you with a free, no obligation analysis of your unit's current value.

Meanwhile if you have friends or fellow owners you think would enjoy these updates, shoot us a message and they'll be included next month.

Aloha,

John and Sid