Six officers on Maui have joined the U.S. Space Force. Four more will be sworn in soon. They'll be focused on "space domain awareness" keeping tabs on what's going on in space. The goal is to protect our satellites as well as U.S. and allied interests in space. * U.S. News & World Report just released its list of best hotels and resorts in the country. Check out these rankings: Four Seasons Resort Lanai earned the #1 spot. Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea was #3, Montage Kapalua Bay #12, Hotel Wailea #24, The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua #36, and Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort came in at #53.

If you're looking for a family-friendly movie where you can drink in all things Hawaii without leaving the house, look no further than Netflix. The cast of "Finding Ohana" (pictured) had a great time filming in Hawaii! * The recently revived Hula Bowl is on the move. The new Aloha Stadium could take 3 years to build. A couple of Hawaii locations have been suggested but it could take $6 million for seating, signage and other improvements. So Las Vegas has popped up as a cheaper alternative. If it's approved it would be the 1st time the Hula Bowl was not played in Hawaii.

Speaking of Las Vegas, last month I spoke about a proposal for a single casino resort to be built on Department of Hawaiian Homelands property to aid in getting native Hawaiians off wait lists and onto their ancestral lands and into homes. * Well, gambling fever has spread ... In addition to that proposal, there are 3 bills looking into allowing a state lottery. Another bill to allow offshore gaming, a lottery and two casinos. Still with me? There's one last bill proposing a Las Vegas-style casino atop the Hawaii Convention Center.

I'll tell ya, last year at this time realtors all over the country were wondering how they'd survive. Well, surprise surprise - real estate went crazy. Nationally, existing home sales in 2020 surged to the highest level in 14 years, and that trend is continuing. All of a sudden Hawaii became the go-to for remote workers. Others who wanted to escape the mainland turned to Video Tours big time ... buying properties they hadn't even seen in person. Mortgage applications for 2nd or vacation homes jumped 84% year over year in January. In September 2020 they surged to 118% year over year. Check out these figures for 2020:

Here on Maui, there were 101 single family homes sold last month, 19% more than the 85 that sold in January 2020. The median price was up 26% to $980,000 from $777,500 a year before. The market is much tighter for single-family homes than condos. Inventory dropped 49.3% last month compared to a year ago.

Condos had a very different picture. Inventory there rose by 9.7% last month compared to the same month last year. The median price for a condo was fairly flat - $560,000 last month compared to $562,000 last year. Sales of condos declined by 10.2% to 115 units sold, from 128 sold in January 2020.

Let's take a look at Maui real estate comparing January 2021 to January 2020:

I don't have to tell you tourism to Hawaii was down last year. Heck, the pandemic dropped the hammer on travel world wide. Still, the Hawaii Tourism Authority did a special study on visitors who came to Hawaii during the last week of December and first week of January. They wanted to see how their Hawaii experience had been affected by testing, quarantines, and specifically Hawaii's Safe Travels program. Happy to report that our Aloha spirit won them over despite travel challenges. The vast majority (85%) rated their trip "Excellent". A total of 94% said their trip either exceeded or met their expectations. The complete study is available here.

Airlines are starting to add a lot more service to Hawaii. Next month (March 9th) Hawaii Airlines will offer a new daily flight between Kahului, Maui and Long Beach, California. They are also adding service between Honolulu and Austin, Texas; Ontario, California; and Orlando, Florida in the coming weeks. * Southwest Airlines will launch two new routes March 11th: daily non-stops between Kahului, Maui and Long Beach, CA; and Honolulu - Long Beach. * United Airlines is jumping on that pony too with flights from Orange County, CA to Honolulu starting May 6th. Then on June 3rd United will add routes between Chicago and Kona, as well as New York/Newark to Maui."

Well if all this travel talk is making you want to get your suitcases out of the hall closet, listen up. If you don't already own a piece of paradise to stay at, don't spend your hard earned money on a hotel. Not when you can get a fully furnished condo or home through Maui Beachfront Rentals complete with kitchen, laundry, and free parking ... all things you either can't get - or pay through the nose for at hotels. And of course you'll enjoy all the amenities of a Resort! * Due to a lot of demand, they are now taking reservations for 2022.

Whether you're looking for a vacation rental, or you own property that you'd like to make income on when you're not using it, MBR will work closely with you. They are expanding to other Islands and will be able to help you with Island hopping to Kauai and Hawaii Island. I'll have more about that in future updates.

For more information on this we turn to Dean Rathbun of Avis Mortgage.  Dean shared that along with the Fed, most economists expect a sharp rebound in the second half of the year. The Federal Reserve pledged to keep its low interest rate policies in place and said they will continue to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds. Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicated rates will remain low until jobs have recovered, even if inflation moves beyond the Fed's target rate.

With the spike in residential sales Dean says he's never been so busy at Avis Mortgage - not only with mortgage originations, but refi's as well. Dean mentioned currency competition. I thought he meant crypto-currency like bitcoin. But no, he drops this little nugget on me from Reuters: "China would really like the yuan to replace the U.S. dollar as the world's favored currency." And now, I've dropped it on you ...

This spring will likely be another fiercely competitive one for buyers - record low inventories and rapidly rising home prices. Believe me I'm seeing bidding wars and lots of folks buying property sight unseen - just video tours. If you're looking to buy property be careful who you entrust with getting you one of your biggest assets. There are so many part time realtors who are subsidizing their waiter's salary or vice versa. Make sure you're represented by a knowledgeable professional.

As owner of Berkshire Hathaway Maui Properties I have over 35 years experience in the Maui market with sales approaching $2 billion! If you already own property on Maui and would like to take advantage of the big increases in value, I'd be happy to provide you with a free, no obligation, confidential assessment of your property value.

Remember we are the only Berkshire Hathaway Real Estate Brokerages on Maui. Our offices are located in Lahaina-Kapalua and Wailea-Makena. I'm available to you 7 days a week.

BerkshireHathaway@maui.net | (808) 280-6000