Hawaii Information Service reports the average price of homes on Kauai was $599,000 in June comparee to $697,000 a year earlier. There were 41 sales, compared to 70 in June 2005.

The price changes of existing single family homes has fallen 14% from the levels of last year as sales shifted from premium priced areas.

Of those 41 homes that went to closing, 10 were in the Kapaa area (Kawaihau district) and 10 in the Lihue area. Lihue prices actually rose 21 percent from last year.

Today Hawaii has more than 2,000 greenhouses as well as more than 3,000 acres of open fields used for this farming sector. More than 900 farms are in the floriculture and nursery business in Hawaii. The number is down slightly from the year before but well up from 2001 when there were fewer than 800.

Out-of-state flower and nursery sales, both wholesale and retail, came close to $50 million in 2005. This includes multiple transactions as some plants and flowers change hands from farmer to middleman before leaving the state. Almost a third of sales came just from out-of-state sales of potted foliage, but if potted and cut orchid sales are combined, the orchid sector is even bigger.

Gaylord Entertainment Co. (NYSE: GET) announced today that it has entered into a joint venture with RREEF Global Opportunities Fund II, LLC, a division of Deutsche Bank, and that the joint venture has purchased the Courtyard by Marriott Kauai at Waipouli Beach. The property will be renamed the ResortQuest Kauai Beach at Makaiwa.

Gaylord Entertainment will retain a 19.9 percent equity interest in the joint venture with a total investment in the hotel of approximately $3.8 million. The hotel will be managed under a long-term contract by ResortQuest, the nation’s leading vacation rental property management company, which is owned by Gaylord Entertainment.