Real Property Taxes – Honolulu, Oahu – Tax Calendar

November 8, 2013

Honolulu Real Property Tax

We have arrived in November, an extremely busy time for the City and County of Honolulu Real Property Assessment Division.  October 1 is the “date of valuation” for the 2013-2014 tax year, and the County assessors are now busy preparing property values that will be mailed out to taxpayers on December 15…just in time for Christmas!

Taxpayers and property owners on Oahu should be aware of the following real property taxation dates:

September 1 Deadline for filing dedication petitions (Forms available)
September 30 Deadline for filing exemption claims (Forms available)
September 30 Deadline for filing tax credit applications (Treasury Division)
October 1 Date of Valuation
October 31 Deadline for dedication approval/disapproval
November 1 Deadline for reporting changes affecting exemptions (Form available)
December 15 Assessment notices mailed
January 15 Deadline for filing appeals (Forms available)
February 1 Certified assessment roll sent to City Council
June 15 Tax rates set by City Council
June 30 End of tax year
July 1 Beginning of tax year
July 20 First-half year bills mailed
August 20 First-half year payments due
January 20 Second-half year bills mailed
February 20 Second-half year payments due

For property owners considering an appeal of their assessments, the two most important dates are December 15 and January 15.  If you are going to appeal, you have to do it in that 30-day window.

If you decide you want to appeal your assessment, the chart above has links to the forms you’ll need.  If you’re having trouble, send me an email and I’ll get you pointed in the right direction.

General information about your Oahu property, including its assessed value and other tax data can be found at this website: http://www.honolulupropertytax.com

Questions or comments?  Please leave them in the comment box below, I would be happy to clarify and/or expand.

Aloha, Chris

Please read my disclaimer.

Definitions

appeal
In property taxation disputes, the legal process by which an owner may challenge either an ad valorem taxation assessment or a special assessment.

assessment
1. The official valuation of property for ad valorem taxation.
2. A single charge levied against a parcel of real estate to defray the cost of a public improvement that presumably will benefit only the properties it serves, e.g., assessment for the installation of sidewalks, curbs, or sewer and water lines. 
3. A determination of the amount paid by or to the owners of real estate to defray the cost of a public improvement that is presumed to benefit the properties it serves in an amount at least equal to the cost of the improvement, e.g., assessment of benefits and/or damages for public sewer or water lines. 

assessment date (date of valuation)
The status date for tax purposes. Appraised values reflect the status of the property and any partially completed construction as of this date

assessor
1. The head of an assessment agency; sometimes used collectively to refer to all administrators of the assessment function. (IAAO)
2. One who discovers, lists, and values real property for ad valorem taxation.

property tax

Any tax that is imposed on persons on account of their ownership or possession of property and is measured by the number of units, the value, or some presumptive evidence of number of units or value, of such property. Note: This tax is generally, but not necessarily, intended to be a direct, proportional ad valorem tax.

tax exemption

Total exemption or freedom from tax; granted to educational, charitable, religious, and other nonprofit organizations. Partial exemptions from ad valorem tax are granted to homesteads in some states.

tax rate
The factor used to calculate the total tax for a property, typically expressed in dollars per $100 or $1,000 (mills) of assessed value. The tax rate can be calculated by dividing the total amount of the taxes for a community by the total assessed value of all properties in the community.

Source for all definitions: Appraisal Institute, The Dictionary of Real Estate Appraisal, 5th ed. (Chicago: Appraisal Institute, 2010).

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Hokua Luxury Condo Tower – Where are the owners from?

September 7, 2013

The Hokua condominium, located at 1288 Ala Moana Boulevard, is arguably Honolulu’s most prestigious high-rise address.

Hokua - Image Sourse: Bing Maps

Hokua – Image Source: Bing Maps

The 40-story tower, built in 2006 as a joint development venture between the MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group, and A&B Properties Inc,, sits between two highly desirable shopping destinations (Ala Moana Shopping Center to the east and Ward Center to the west), and benefits from excellent ocean views over Ala Moana Beach Park.

Where are the 248 Hokua unit owners from?

When appraisers are valuing a proposed high-rise condominium project, it is often appropriate to develop a market study that analyzes where potential purchasers are likely to come from.  According to tax records as of September 2013, Hokua units are owned by individuals from the following locales:

HOKUA UNIT OWNERS BY STATE / COUNTRY
State / Country # of Units Owned % of Total
Hawaii 177 71.4%
Japan 20 8.1%
California 18 7.3%
Other U.S. 5 2.0%
China 4 1.6%
Korea 4 1.6%
Canada 3 1.2%
Nevada 3 1.2%
New York 3 1.2%
Taiwan 2 0.8%
Florida 2 0.8%
Illinois 2 0.8%
Massachusetts 2 0.8%
Washington 2 0.8%
Switzerland 1 0.4%
Total 248 100.0%

In total, 86.3 percent of current Hokua owners are US based (71.4 percent from Hawaii) and 13.7 percent are foreign (Japan leading the pack with 8.1 percent).  These figures skew more toward Hawaii than I was expecting, although 35 or so units (about 14 percent) are owned by corporations, partnerships, LLC’s, or other entities that have Hawaii addresses, but are not necessarily controlled by owners who reside primarily in the Aloha State.  But by and large, it appears that Hokua’s reputation as the premier luxury tower for wealthy Hawaii residents is deserved.

Hokua owners by state and country

Source: Honolulu Tax Office records and Chris Ponsar, MAI

Future articles will analyze other luxury properties to see how other prestigious developments in Honolulu compare.

Questions, comments?  Please leave them in the comment box, I would be happy to clarify and/or expand.

Aloha, Chris

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Proposed Honolulu Condo Towers – The List of 12

August 4, 2013 2 Comments

These days in Hawaii, one of the most common topics real estate appraisers are confronted with is: “Have you heard about that new tower they announced in Kakaako?”

Very often, I’m asked for specifics about a new high rise condominium development in Honolulu.  I decided to compile a concise list.

There is an enormous amount of development activity happening in Hawaii right now, especially in urban Honolulu.  Major developers, lenders, and landowners are involved, including: Alexander and Baldwin (A&B), Howard Hughes Corporation, The MacNaughton Group, Kobayashi Group, OliverMcMillan, Tradewind Capital, Kamehameha Schools, Stanford Carr, American Savings Bank, Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Wells Fargo, and First Hawaiian Bank.

As I started to put this list together, I quickly realized that the variety of residential projects being planned was staggering: High-rise condos, student housing, timeshare, hotel, high-rise apartments, low-rise condominiums, senior housing, and even affordable housing for artists!

Here are the parameters for inclusion in this article:

  • High-Rise Construction
  • Fee Simple Condominiums
  • Whole Ownership (No Timeshare)
  • An active development plan on track for approvals, financing, and construction.

12 Oahu towers made the cut, a total of 4,166 proposed units–web links and a brief summary of each project is included below:

2013 PROPOSED / COMPLETED HIGH RISE CONDOMINIUM TOWERS
Oahu, Honolulu, Hawaii
# Tower Name (click name) Stories Units Status / Timing
1 Holomua 23 176 Completed: Early 2013 
2 Waihonua at Kewalo 43 341 Under Construction
Completion: 2014 of 2015
3 ONE Ala Moana 23 210 Under Construction
Completion: Late 2014
4 Symphony Honolulu 45 388 Groundbreaking: Late 2013
Completion: 2015
5 801 South Street 46 635 Groundbreaking: “Mid-2013”
6 Ritz-Carlton Residences,
Waikiki Beach		 36 309 Groundbreaking: Late 2013
Completion: 2016
7 The Collection
(3 buildings, 1 high rise)		 43 460 Groundbreaking: Mid to Late 2014
Completion: Late 2016 to 2017
8 404 Ward Ave 38 424 Groundbreaking: Early 2014
Completion: 2016
9 Keauhou Lane in Kakaako 40 600 Groundbreaking: Mid to Late 2014
10 Aloha Kai 39 128 Completion: 2016
11 “Fishnet Tower” 38 177 Proposed
12 “Wave Tower” 38 318 Proposed
Compiled by: Chris Ponsar, MAI   4,166 Total Units

The map below shows the location of each project in urban Honolulu:

Oahu Condo Project Map - Chris Ponsar, MAI

Click HERE to view details in Bing Maps

This link: http://binged.it/13RCPpX takes you to an interactive Bing Map that shows photos and details of each project.  As shown, most of the activity is in Kakaako.

Want more details?

Here you go:

Proposed Honolulu Condo Towers - Detail

CLICK CHART TO ENLARGE

Comments and/or Questions?  Please leave them in the comments section below–I’d be happy to clarify or expand.

Aloha, Chris

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Interest Rates and Hawaii Residential Prices–Are They Really Connected?

August 2, 2013 3 Comments

I posted an article a few days ago that examined the theoretical relationship between interest rates and purchasing power.  The calculations beg the question “are interest rates and Hawaii home prices actually connected?”

Logic says “of course!”, the data suggests “not so much!”

Let’s assume a 20 percent down payment, market loan fees (points), and monthly payments of 35 percent of a household’s gross income.

The following chart shows State of Hawaii median income, condominium median prices, single family median prices, and national average interest rates for 30-year mortgages from 1987 through 2011 (the latest year for which all data points are available).

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Freddie Mac, Hawaii State Data Book, and Chris Ponsar, MAI

Based upon the income and interest rates shown, the median Hawaii family could afford a monthly payment of $1,021 in 1987, and $1,722 in 2011.  These payments equate to affordable home prices of $114,370 in 1987, and $341,898 in 2011. (A pretty hefty increase in purchasing power, driven largely by lower interest rates)

Lets see how the figures track with historic price fluctuations in the Hawaii residential real estate market.

Hawaii Home Affordability vs Median Prices

The red and green trendlines track single family and condominium prices in the study period–as shown, condos and single family home prices track pretty well.

How about affordability (the purple trendline) based on interest rates ?

The long term trend is clearly positive for all variables, with affordable price, condo price, and single family price all being about 3x higher in 2011 than they were in 1987.

But that’s not the question most folks are asking.  The market participants I talk to are generally trying to answer the question “If interest rates go up (this year, or next year), will prices go down (this year, or next year)?”  Is it a causal relationship?

What do you think?  Personally, beyond long term growth, I don’t see a strong relationship in the data, and neither is a solid correlation revealed in geeky statistical analyses.

Why isn’t the correlation better?

Higher interest rates do equate to lower affordability for a particular household, but why doesn’t that relationship translate well into median prices?

A few suggestions:

  1. Median prices are not the best way to measure market trends–overall dollar volume and the raw number of sales may provide more insight (and material for a future article)
  2. Hawaii’s population continues to grow faster than new housing units are developed–fundamental demand grows incrementally in both good times and bad. (Which explains the overall upward trend in prices, but not the ups and downs in particular years)
  3. When monthly payments go up, families still need shelter.  For those families contemplating a home purchase, spending on discretionary items will likely suffer first (say vacations or luxury items)–these spending habit adjustments allow families to absorb a certain amount of extra monthly payment caused by increased interest rates.
  4. When prices start to decline, sellers may opt not to put their home on the market.  Financially stable homeowners can afford to “hold out” for their desired price, which restricts supply, and in turn has a stabilizing effect on prices.

Frankly, when I began researching the data for this article, I expected to see a pretty reasonable relationship between affordability and median prices–instead, we see that from the perspective of a current homeowner, prices appear not to fluctuate on a “dollar for dollar” basis with interest rates. From an appraiser/appraisal perspective, it is imperative to observe how the market reacts to the rising rates that are currently anticipated, not just automatically assume lower prices if interest rates rise.

Comments and/or Questions?  Please leave them in the comments section below–I’d be happy to clarify or expand.

Aloha, Chris

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Rising Interest Rates = Decreasing Purchasing Power?

July 30, 2013

bernanke_ben

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke

As early as March 1 of this year, the Fed began to hint at increasing interest rates.  Now, financial markets globally are pondering the same.

What would an increase in interest rates do to home purchasing power in Hawaii?  Consider the following graph:

Rising Interest Rate Declining Purchasing Power

Graph Credit: Nate Alexander

As of June 2013, the median single family home price on Oahu was $677,250.  The chart above assumes the median home in the City and County of Honolulu is affordable at a 30-year interest rate of 4.00 percent (30-year fixed, 80% LTV, 33% debt service to income ratio).  Rate increases at intervals of 25 basis points (0.25%) are shown.

The impact of just a one percent increase in interest rates is staggering: The same family making the same income can suddenly only afford only a $602k home–approximately 11 percent less.

The graph below presents the data in terms of percent:

Graph Credit: Nate Alexander

Graph Credit: Nate Alexander

What if interest rates rose two percent?  The effective purchasing power of the same household would decrease more than 20 percent!  Bear in mind that 30-year interest rates of 6.00 percent are not historically uncommon–when my wife and I purchased our first home in 2005, our rate was 5.625 percent.

Ok.  Shock and Awe.  What’s the point?  Are we going down the tubes?

The point of this article is to show how an increase in interest rates can affect the purchasing power of a particular household, not to predict the impact of rate increases on median prices (or the price of your home).  In other words, if you can afford a $675k house at 4.0% interest, you’ll only be able to buy a $600k home if rates increase just one percentage point–all other factors being equal.

In a future post, I’ll talk about how historic interest rates track (or don’t track) with historic median prices, and how interest rates relate to sales volume (demand).

Comments and/or Questions?  Please leave them in the comments section below–I’d be happy to clarify or expand.

Aloha, Chris

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Hawaiki Tower Analysis – An alternative to traditional comps and adjustments.

July 22, 2013

For many appraisers in Hawaii, a common but challenging assignment is to value a single unit in a high-rise luxury condominium project.

There are dozens of luxury high-rises in Honolulu.  This article takes a look at Hawaiki Tower, a 46-story condominium with 417 residential units. It is situated immediately across the street from Ala Moana Shopping Center and benefits from highly desirable ocean views.

Hawaiki Tower HeroPhoto Credit: Mathew Ngo – REALTOR®

At first, it might seem straightforward to value a unit in this building.  For example, in the past 12 months, 14 residential units at Hawaiki Tower have sold, as shown in the chart below:

Hawaiki Sales - Past 12 MonthsSources:  HiCentral MLS, and Chris Ponsar, MAI

From an appraiser’s point of view, what’s not to love?  We’ve got a bunch of seemingly clean data to work with. This is largely true, but a closer look reveals the following:

  • 10 sales of two-bedroom units in the past year, and 4 sales of one bedroom units.
  • Floor levels range from 8 to 43
  • Unit sizes range from 842 to 1,618 square feet of living area.
  • Sale prices range from $575,000 to $1,616,000
  • Prices per square foot range from $642 to $1,187

In other words, sale prices and unit characteristics fall in a wider range than one might expect, and an appraiser looking at any particular unit will be challenged to provide solid market support for adjustments.  Not impossible, but definitely difficult.

Let’s look at an alternative: The Multiplier Method

The following chart tracks resales at Hawaiki Tower since construction completion in 1999.

Hawaiki Resale as pctSources:  HiCentral MLS, Hawaii Information Service, and Chris Ponsar, MAI

At first, this might appear to be a summary of run-of-the-mill sale prices, but it isn’t.  This chart tracks each sale price at Hawaiki Tower as a percent of its original developer’s sale price.   As shown, the 150 percent threshold was crossed sometime around 2004, with the march past 200 percent taking shape in 2012. (We’re definitely getting into appraiser geek stuff here)

The benefits of this approach are rooted in the idea that when Hawaiki Tower was first completed and sold out in 1999-2001 (a time of relatively stable pricing where almost 75 percent of the project closed in the first 12 months after completion), the developer and more than 400 buyers came to individual agreements on price.  Buyer preferences for items such as ocean view, unit size, floor level, floor plan, etc are “baked in” to the original developer closing prices.

If we take another look at the Hawaiki Tower sales from the previous 12 months, a tighter trend reveals itself in the “% of original price” and “multiplier” columns:

Hawaiki Multiplier Chart

In the prior 12 months, on average, the 10 two-bedroom sales at Hawaiki Tower traded for 2.2x their original sale prices.  One-bedroom units are trailing a bit, selling for about 1.9x the original developer’s price–a possible indication that one-bedroom units are less desirable, in comparison to two-bedroom units, than they were in 1999, a market preference that many real estate agents and appraisers have observed.

What does it all mean?

Based on the sales activity at Hawaiki Tower over the past 12 months, units have closed in the range of 1.6-2.8x original prices, with most activity happening in the 1.9-2.3x range.  As a property owner, real estate agent, or other professional interested in market value, it would seem reasonable to set value expectations in these ranges.

If you’re interested to know what your unit sold for originally in the 1999-2001 sell out period, send me a note and I’ll zip it over to you (the whole 400-unit list seems a bit overwhelming for this article).  Alternatively, you can look up the public record sales activity for any property on Oahu at http://www.honolulupropertytax.com.  Go to the property search tab and enter your address or tax map key if you know it (again, drop me a line if I can help).

Comments and/or Questions?  Please leave them in the comments section below–I’d be happy to clarify or expand.

Aloha, Chris

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