Hawaiʻi’s current housing market is inhospitable to both would-be homebuyers and sellers looking to offload a house, according to recent data from real estate platforms Zillow and Redfin.
Mortgage rates have roughly doubled in some cities, homes are spending as much as twice as long on the market and the vast majority of houses are selling for under the asking price.
Urban Honolulu was already the 4th least affordable metro area in the U.S. in 2024, with a house price-to-income ratio only surpassed by three California cities, according to the Pew Research Center. High housing prices also meant that mortgage debt per capita was 54% higher in Hawaiʻi than the rest of the country that year, according to the state’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism…