Oahu real estate prices come back to earth - and land in Kailua

This week I was viewing this large home in Kailua, just 2 blocks from the beach. It's 2718 sqft in a great neigborhood, Koolaupoku, and listed at just $750k. In Hawaii, that's cheap. The house needs some renovation, as it hasn't been updated since 1991, but it has a nice large lot of 7500 sqft, and the roof seems to be very recent.

Just a couple years ago, $750k couldn't get you anything in Kailua except a small piece of junk, and nice homes this size in excellent condition were selling for about $1.5million. The market has fallen, buyers are in command, and sellers are all motivated. In fact every seller I spoke to this week told me that specifically.

This house is going to need some work but if it was in excellent condition, it would probably be worth around $1million even in today's market. For just $750k you can have a big house one block from America's best beach, and probably turn a profit in a couple years.