RANK | PREVIOUS | COMPANY |
1 | 3 | Tesoro Hawai`i |
2 | 1 | Alexander & Baldwin |
3 | 5 | Weinberg Foundation |
4 | 2 | Maui Land & Pineapple Co. |
5 | 6 | Monsanto Hawai`i |
6 | 4 | Dowling Co. |
7 | 8 | Goodfellow Brothers |
8 | 7 | Hawaiian Telcom |
9 | 9 | Maui Electric Co. |
10 | 10 | Wailuku Water Co. |
HOME PRICES FALL
Some bad news for land developers like A&B, Dowling and Maui Land & Pine this week. Looks like the local housing market is still flattening out. According to new stats from the Realtors Association of Maui—which the online Pacific Business News covered on May 9—the median price of a single family home on Maui dropped to a mere $690,000. That’s just 99 percent of the price in April 2006—now a properly educated “economist” might differ, but it looks to me like we’re all headed to shanty towns at this rate. For condos, the news is even worse: the median price is now $465,000, while it was $539,500 last April. Though the news isn’t all bad. Homebuilders like Goodfellow Brothers are making out like bandits: condo sales have flattened out, but an amazing 102 single-family homes sold in April, which is way more than the 72 that sold during April 2006.
NOT SO THRILLING NEWS
If you notice, ML&P dropped even further on the chart this week than other developers. The reason can be found in the May 9 Maui News story “Kapalua land swap nets gains for Maui Land & Pine.” No, it’s not because the company is showing higher first quarter profits because of its decision to swap land under the Ritz-Carlton hotel for a stake in the hotel. And no, it’s not even because of the company’s announcement that it’s getting out of the canned pineapple business. No, Maui Land & Pine falls two notches this week on news that they’re going to ad a zip line “thrill ride” to a new “mountain activities center” in Kapalua. A zip line?! In Kapalua!? I mean, a zip line is fine and all, but who’s going to use it? People–most of whom are richer than God–go to Kapalua to golf, not zip line. MTW
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