Real estate on the Big Island

As with many areas, prices in the Hilo area are down — and so are rates. Realtors report many of the speculators have left the cooled-off market, leaving bargains for those with the capital to take advantage.

Buyers will find plenty of inventory above $500,000, with prices reaching up to $6 million for beach-side ranch homes. Deals tend to close at between 90 percent to 95 percent of a fair asking price, real estate agents say.

Here are some data related to real estate activity in Hilo, Hawaii.

Numbers for the area do tend to swing widely because of the relatively low numbers of homes and sales. In December 2008, for example, there were 12 sales in the city, with about double that in more active months.

• There are about 16,100 properties in Hilo, with roughly 55 percent of the households owning and 35% renting.
• The average estimated value of a house in Hilo was about $325,000 at the beginning of 2009. (That’s down from about $410,000 near a market high in August 2007.) The average list price was $368,000.
• In February 2009, the average market value was $285,000. The median housing value in Hilo recently was $337,000.
• The inventory of homes in the Hilo market was about 1,000 in February 2009. About 90 percent of those properties were resales. Hilo was recently in the top 5 for foreclosure properties in the state of Hawaii.
• The recent average number of days on the market in Hilo was 108.
• Rent recently averaged a bit over $1,000 a month.
• For the city of Volcano, there typically are two or three sales a month. The average estimated value of homes in December 2008 was $373,000. The recent median value was $252,000. There were about 200 homes on the market recently. The percentage of vacancies in Volcano, Hawaii, is unusually high, 27 percent. Days on the market averaged about 100.
• The tax rate per $1,000 for residential property is $8.10.

Schools in Hilo: There are 18 public schools and seven private schools.

View Hilo mortgage rates.

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Use this simple mortgage calculator.

(Some homes data from AOL Real Estate.)