Blog: www.kgmb9.com/howard

Video Headline: Home Price Report

The new home price report is out from Prudential Locations. It breaks down Oahu home sales by neighborhoods, to look for trends and to remind us that islandwide trends are often a bit different from what's going on in the particular community you're interested in. Let's look at the three-month median price in five areas that saw 40 home sales or more over the past three months.

Some went up, some went down, but the key thing is that in most areas, mortgage rate fluctuation has the potential to change your monthly cost more than these price changes. The one exception is Mililani, where that 13% appreciation in median prices is roughly equal to flat prices with mortgage rates rising more than a full percent.

Some neighborhoods I didn't list -- Manoa is down 18% from last year, to the point where half the sales are for less than a million dollars. Lots of Leeward homes are selling close to 300 again.

Other Headlines:

Don't look for any leveling off of airline ticket prices just yet. United Airlines is maintaining its newest fare increase, covering domestic routes that have no competition from Southwest or Jet Blue. United has also copied American's 15 dollar first bag fee. And American has done another 20 dollar roundtrip fuel surcharge increase on mainland routes that have no discount competition.

The latest airline CEO to cry the blues about jet fuel bills is Doug Parker. The head of US Airways spoke to shareholders yesterday. Parker said the average ticket on his airline would have to be 650 dollars to break even, and the actual average prices is nowhere close to that. Many domestic fares cover only the fuel bill, leaving the airline eating its labor costs.

Ed and Don's, a local chocolate brand, is branching out into macadamia nuts. Their new brand is Pacific Traders. This is a can of Alaea Salt mac nuts -- or it was. Our morning staff did extensive testing on this and another can and concluded that they want to do more research.

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