The Price of Living in ‘Paradise’ Is Higher Than Ever

This article is part of our latest special report on Waterfront Homes.

Hawaii has long been a dream destination for wealthy home buyers from the United States mainland. But that has probably never been more true than now.

“From the second half of 2020, into 2021, luxury sales volume in the state of Hawaii grew at a frenetic pace,” said Matthew Beall, the chief executive of Hawaii Life, a real estate firm.

“The state saw triple-digit growth in transactions,” he added, noting that his firm alone had experienced 307 percent growth in total dollar value.

Neal Norman, a director at Hawaii Life, said the influx of buyers from Silicon Valley had been helping to drive the market in Hawaii, which has surged, in part, because of the pandemic. People have realized that they can more readily work remotely — and if they have to go back to the office, they are only a “five-and-a-half-hour plane ride from paradise.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/realestate/hawaii-housing-prices-pandemic.html