I personally have found that closing prices have increased mainly with funding costs increasing by the lenders. I normally make the Seller pay all the closing costs and they are willing to, but still the closing costs appear to be rising. I'm not a developer so I cannot say but it appears they are keeping prices high in hopes that inventories of existing homes on the market decrease, leaving you with their homes as a more palatable choice. Whether that works, who knows but my experience is that the developers have not dropped prices or given much more incentives to make people run out and buy everything they have.

I have noticed that the "Blue Sky" posting here are from Realtors. A large number of homes have been on the market for 6 months and more. As well as there has been substantial price reductions on most properties. I won't be buying anytime soon. Hawaii Guy

Absolutely. An increase in inventory will backlog existing home sales. Many of the new home buyers are selling their home to move into the development homes. In California, where you live it has been devastating. I know of a person that didn't complete his contract there and the developer won't return his deposit!
Here in Hawaii, we have much, much less inventory to begin with, especially new homes.
Surprisingly, our inventory for resales has remained pretty steady. It is up about 10% from last year, and 20% from two years ago.
The median number of days on the market has been creeping up and went over 60 days in January, but has now dropped. Inventory has adjusted upward for both SF and Condos, in anticipation of summer moves and higher volume (we hope).

Aloha:
My name is Mike Gallagher and I am Broker in Charge at RE/MAX Honolulu.

Sold Price % to Listing Price is approx. 98% and almost always at this %. However there are still plenty of Sellers with very unrealistic expectations here as indicated in the dramtically rising number of Withdrawn and Expired Listings taking place each Month.

You can view these statistics at my website: http://www.hawaiirealestatestatistics.com and you can email me directly at mikeg@hawaii.rr.com

Much Aloha,
Mike G.

Hi Michael,
Walt is correct in his response. You will get more concessions when dealing with the financing aspects or the points on the loan, or even reduced maintenance fees. Sales prices for newer homes are still relatively fixed, because there is always more demand for new construction. What will be affected more are the homes that sold in the last 2 years.

Go to http://www.worrall.com for more info

Hi Michael,
Good question in these times. There are some basics that may help answer it though.
First: location.
This affects the supply / demand curve directly.
Next, and this is really the simple one, A deal is agreed offer between a willing buyer and a willing seller. In this case, that translates into making an offer and seeing where it goes. In these times you may be plesantly suprised.
Don't rule out asking for non-cash concessions or credit to costs at closing. We are seeing more of these across the board.

Happy house hunting.

Walt Berhalter, Sales Manager, Century 21 ALl Islands - Koloa
GRI, ABRM, E-Pro, JC, CLU, MBA, RA