Location: North Shore, Oahu
07/01/2007
Oahu’s Diamond Head and Kahala neighborhoods—known for better or worse as the Beverly Hills of Hawaii—are storied playgrounds for the rich and richer. For decades, homebuyers have plopped down ungodly sums for a slice of paradise, underneath the world’s most famous volcanic crater.For those looking for the next big thing, a distant and much less hectic shore beckons. About an hour’s drive away, the North Shore—the stretch of coastline from Kaena Point to Kahuku Point—remains much as it has for decades: a funky hinterland populated by surfers, societal misfits, artists and urban refugees. Surf shops outnumber supermarkets; clapboard shacks with junker cars in the front yard adjoin luxurious Balinese-style mansions. A big night on the town means grabbing a burger and beer. Even now, a Honolulan heading to the North Shore for the day will tell a friend, "I’m going to the country."
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"It’s just a quiet, unpretentious lifestyle. Hollywood people live out there and go into Haleiwa [the North Shore’s sleepy town] and nobody bothers them," says native Honolulan Mary Worrall of Mary Worrall Associates/Sotheby’s International Realty.
The laidback ethos is driven by surf culture. From October to March, this is cowabunga country. The huge swells that pound the coast are a siren call for the surfing elite, with beach bunnies, hordes of tourists and ESPN camera crews in hot pursuit. Names like Pipeline—home to many pro surf contests—Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach are legendary in surf lore. If you are awakened by the crash of waves, you know you bought in the right neighborhood.
In the spring, most of the tourists head home, the crowds thin in front of Matsumoto’s world-famous shave-ice shop, and life along the North Shore settles into the easygoing groove that has seduced many a mainlander. Author Paul Theroux, pecks his keyboard from his blufftop aerie, down the road from where surfing legend Barry Kanaiaupuni, "BK," waxes his board before going out. Terry O’Quinn, the shiny-pated John Locke from Lost, much of which is filmed on the North Shore, shortened his commute by several thousand miles when he settled into a home here. And folk-rocker Jack Johnson (a former champion surfer) pads around in flip-flops on the North Shore, not far from where he grew up.
Despite its considerable charms, real estate on the North Shore remained relatively cheap for decades. After 9/11, "everything changed," recalls Pete Arnold, a fine homes specialist with Prudential Locations in Honolulu. Vacation homebuyers got the jitters about investing in a foreign country and looked instead to the familiarity of the 50th state.
"Hawaii became a very safe, but still exotic destination," Arnold says.
Residential real estate money poured into the state. Much of it headed straight to the North Shore. In a few years, Arnold says, the North Shore went from being one of Hawaii’s most affordable areas to one of its least. Last year, the market stabilized. With few signs that it will dip any further before climbing back up, it’s time to go shopping.
"The North Shore is probably the best buy in oceanfront property in the state," Worrall adds. Compared to Southern California, prices here are downright affordable. New construction fetches about $3 million to $5 million for three bedrooms and two baths on the beach; smaller lots go for $1.5 million to $2 million, with prices on properties within a few blocks of the beach hovering just under $1 million. On the North Shore’s western edge, Turtle Bay Resort (controversial among slow-growthers) has beachfront villas for $2 million to $4 million, alongside George Fazio and Arnold Palmer golf courses. When you’re ready to head back to the mainland, a helicopter will swoop you to the Honolulu International Airport. While oceanfront is holding onto its value, the bluffs behind the coastal Kamehameha Highway have hit a slump. In the agricultural area of Pupukea, where millionaires in gated estates share a hillside with free-roaming chickens, "things that were $1.4 million are down to $900,000," Arnold says.
Travel west to the dry, leeward side of the island and you’ll find the best oceanfront deals on Oahu, says Worrall. A beach home in the enclave of Makaha starts at $1.25 million. Shopping and services are limited, but not for long. The state has put its muscle behind development in the Ko Olina area, where JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa is filling rooms at a brisk pace.
If you’re dead set on the North Shore, keep in mind it is not for everyone. Apart from a couple of restaurants at Turtle Bay, gourmands will be hard-pressed to find a suitable dining spot. Moreover, the "Keep the North Shore Country" crowd won’t be happy when the bulldozer shows up to tear down that cute beach shack on your new oceanfront lot.
In the long run, it is worth the fuss. Oahu is a small island and there’s only so much coastline. Says Worrall, "Anytime you can buy oceanfront in the state of Hawaii, you’re buying gold."
Facts & Stats
Hot Properties
The Sullivan Estate, perhaps the North Shore’s best-known property, was built in the ’60s by Foodland grocery store founder Maurice "Sully" Sullivan and is on the market for $29 million. Said to be a favorite haunt of Elvis’s, the six-bedroom retreat (www.sullivanestate.com) sits on more than five acres of blufftop grounds overlooking the ocean and underwent a complete remodel in 2003. Offered through Prudential Locations, www.prudentiallocations.com. Other in-the-know Realtors include Mary Worrall Associates/Sotheby’s International Realty, 808.739.4490, www.worrall.com, and Pete Arnold of Prudential Locations, 808.392.9884, www.prudentiallocations.com.
Surfing And Staying
If you’re going to get along with the surf crowd, you’d better at least try to catch a wave—just once. The Turtle Bay Resort offers lessons headed by one of the sport’s Big Kahunas, Hans Hedemann. 808.293.6000, www.turtlebayresort.com. For dinner, Ola, on the sand at Kuilima Cove, serves up a fusion of Hawaiian and international fare. If you bring four-legged family members house hunting, the pet-friendly boutique hotel W Honolulu pampers Fluffy with special treats at nightly turndown. 866.716.8111, www.whotels.com. Headed to the leeward side to check out your future beach pad? The JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa is an elegant stopover. 800.626.4446, www.ihilani.com.
Shopping
From Gucci to Burberry, Honolulu is a shopper’s paradise. Spend the morning with a surf or canoe lesson from the Waikiki Beachboys (www.waikikibeachboys.com), and while away the afternoon at Tiffany’s. For an eclectic hodgepodge of Southeast Asia culture, food and fun, hit Chinatown (www.chinatownhi.com). And don’t miss the Hawaii Theatre Center (www.hawaiitheatre.com), an old, beautifully restored vaudeville house in downtown Honolulu. Once you have picked out your new island getaway, check out Merrill & Associates for Kathy Merrill Kelley’s Pacific Rim–flavored interiors. 808.523.3550, www.merrill-hawaii.com.