The past month has passed in a whirl of activities. The Kona Coffee Cultural Festival was held during the second week of November. The week began with the traditional Miss Kona Coffee Pageant, continued with parades and coffee tasting booths in Holualoa, contests for coffee pickers, recipe contests, seminars on coffee growing and processing, and culminated in the presentation of the awards for the Cupping Contest.

Since we now have our own small coffee farm, we were very interested in the details of growing and production. Everyone was very friendly and willing to share advice and helpful hints. We are anxious to see how our coffee trees do over the next critical year of growth. Generally it takes about two years for the trees to begin serious production of coffee cherry. We have approximately 2 irrigated acres planted in year old trees, so next year we will begin to see some production if all goes as planned! We haven’t yet broken the news to our son that he will be working in the coffee while he is here over Christmas break. I’m certain that he will be most pleasantly surprised… who needs the gym when you have a farm???

Big Island Real Estate Market News

Homes in the under 500K range continue to be listed and sold within very short periods of time, often within the same week. Neighborhoods such as Palisades, Keauhou View Estates, Kona Heights, and Kailua View are showing brisk sales and home prices in those areas have marched steadily upward. This is a great time for homeowners in those subdivisions to cash in on the market trend and list their homes. Buyers who are looking at purchasing a home in this price range are encouraged to be ready to make an offer if they find what they are looking for because it may disappear within a day or two.

Homes in the 500K to 1.3M range are also showing gains in the number of sales reported. Many Baby Boomers are looking for their retirement homes now in order to have something ready when they do retire. The Big Island is a popular vacation destination for these buyers, so we are seeing an increase in sales of second and retirement homes in the higher price ranges.