A recent “for sale” ad on Craigslist offering an Ala Moana Hotel condo unit for half the original price caught my eye.

These condotel units were hot offerings when they went on the market back in 2005, even as some real estate experts were saying, “buyer beware”.

So I did a quick check on units that have been sold in recent months, and was able to confirm that prices have fallen substantially.

Here are some examples:

Original price, $181,000. Recent sale, $ 90,000.
Original price, $165,000. Recent sale, $ 81,000.
Original price, $260,000. Recent sale, $138,000.
Original price, $190,000. Recent sale, $100,000.

A few weren’t quite as bad.

Original price, $235,000. Recent sale, $172,300.
Original price, $175,000. Recent sale, $125,000.
Original price, $210,000. Recent sale, $140,000.

They’re being squeezed by the weak real estate market generally, as well as lower hotel occupancy, meaning less rental income. And I imagine that loans for buyers are probably also hard to come by these days. One listing I saw noted that loans may not be available for hotel rooms that lack kitchens.

It would be interesting to see what’s happened at other buildings that were converted from hotels to condotels.