BUSINESS BRIEFS
Tourism team off to Australia
Advertiser Staff and News Services
State tourism marketers Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and Hawaii Tourism Oceania are leading a sales team to promote Hawai'i corporate meetings and incentives next week in Australia.
The team, which includes hotels, airlines and travel bureaus, will participate in the 2007 AsiaPacific Incentives & Meetings Expo, the largest business event exhibition in Australia. The effort also includes sales meetings in Melbourne and Sydney and a reception for corporate planners that will feature a Hawai'i trip giveaway.
CITY RATED 5TH IN HOME VALUES
An online real estate information provider that estimates home values ranks Honolulu as the fifth most expensive U.S. metropolitan market for single-family homes.
Zillow.com said O'ahu's single-family home median value during the 2006 fourth quarter was $626,452. That was lower than $684,459 for San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Calif., $654,503 for Salinas, Calif., and $627,323 for Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, Calif.
Zillow, which estimates home values in part by comparing sales prices of similar homes in an area, said O'ahu's fourth-quarter value was down from the 2005 fourth quarter value of $619,194.
The peak estimated value by Zillow for O'ahu was $658,557 in the 2006 second quarter.
The Honolulu Board of Realtors reported O'ahu's median single-family home sale price was $620,000 in both the fourth quarter of 2005 and 2006, with a peak of $640,000 in the 2006 second quarter.
