Ricky Cassiday has developed the most functional database of real estate transactions for analyzing the residential market across the state of Hawaii. The data draws upon both public and private data sources (realtor, developer and tax assessment), and goes back to 1985, encompassing 2 major market cycles. It encompasses all islands and all residential property types, including leasehold, for the following market segments:

  • Single family, primary, affordable (income restricted) and resort housing; 

  • Home site sales, primary, agricultural and resort;

  • Condominium for-sale housing, primary, restricted (age and income) and resort;

  • Condominium rental housing, primary, restricted (age, income, and profession, i.e., military end-user), investor and resort;

  • Condotel units, timeshare units, and hotel room units;
    Builder parcels, individual and bulk; and

  • Master Plan Community sales and development, primary and resort.

He has produced over 160 different studies (project feasibility, pricing programs, absorption projections, marketing strategy, product development, market entry and positioning) as well as long-term demand forecasts and models for specific markets and master planned developments.

His work has informed every major Hawaiian developer, financing institution, residential design firm and most landowners and construction companies. He has been a featured public speaker at the Hawaii Developer’s Council, the ULI Hawaii Chapter, the Society of Corporate Planners, Hawaii State Association of Counties, the Hawaii Association of Mortgage Brokers, the BIA Hawaii chapter, Association of Realtors for all the islands plus numerous private groups (including his annual resort residential client gathering, plus MBA Income Property Committee, Investment committee). He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Inman News.

Over 15 years ago, Cassiday began collecting new home sales information directly from developers for Gentry Homes, as well as buyer demographics and psychographics. He   provided senior management and colleagues with colleagues with quantitative data on the reservations, closings, pricing and inventory in the new homes market, as well as related data for the resale market. He continued that work with Castle & Cooke, Prudential Locations research & Consulting and then on his own.

Today, the practice is focused only on the residential market, and can be broken down as follows:

  • A 90%/10% split between private and public agencies (including the US Army, US Navy, State of Hawaii, and Hawaii Housing Development Corp.):

  • A 55%/45% split between Hawaiian and Offshore based clients;

  • A 40%/60% split between primary and secondary/investor target markets;

  • A 72%builder/17% lender/11% research aggregator split amongst end-users; and

  • A 57%Oahu/18% Big Isle/11% Kauai/10% Maui/4% Statewide split amongst the islands.

There have been over 100 specific study clients, the top five of which were DH Horton, Stanford Carr, Centex, Alexander & Baldwin and Hearthstone Advisors (23% of the work was concentrated in these five). In essence, he provides third party outside validation and verification to private and public entities.

The scope of work ranges from market entry by a national builder, master plan validation for zoning applications, market validation for property acquisition, product planning and development research, specific unit pricing, project absorption forecasting and market positioning and marketing messages. Some of the specifics addressed in his work include the regulatory and political environment vis-à-vis product and project, the product design vs. construction cost issue, and the marketing and sales channel opportunities and pitfalls.

It draws on the principal's 15 years in the residential development business, as well as his father’s and family's (seven generations) of owning land (Niu Valley, Kilauea, Kauai), supplying building materials and contracting (Iolani Palace, the Moana Hotel) and developing residential communities (Royal Kunia, Mililani, Ewa by Gentry).

 
 

Paul Richard Kaunahoakalani Cassiday, Jr. (Ricky) was born on Oahu in 1952. He grew up in Niu Valley, land given to his great great grandfather, Alexander Adams, by Kamehameha the Great for services to the crown ( Adams led an expeditionary force against Russian colonialists on Kauai, started the sandalwood trade for the king, designed the Hawaiian flag, and was the first harbor master of Honolulu).
 
Ricky attended Hawaii Preparatory Academy, graduated from Punahou and entered University of Hawaii, where he was an occasional student, due to an intense passion for surfing. From 1970-1974, he made surfboards, surfed in professional and amateur contests (and was ranked #2, Hawaii Surfing Association, Men¹s Division 1973) and marketed several surfing movies in Hawaii and California. Tired of suffering for art, he transitioned out of surfing by transferring out of UH and into George Washington University, not known for it¹s beach culture. On the other hand, it was great for getting involved with politics, and he worked part-time for Hawaii Congressman Cecil Heftel.
 
Upon graduation, he took a job in England at HandMade Films, a joint venture for producing original English entertainment of George Harrison, OBE, and Monty Python. Over the next five years, the company produced or distributed over a dozen films, including MONTY PYTHON¹S LIFE OF BRIAN. After the partnership disbanded, he returned to Washington DC to work in public relations (Hill & Knowlton, and the Heritage Foundation) before returning to Georgetown University to take a master¹s degree (Master of Science, International Relations).
 
In 1985, he went to the Philippines for a summer internship at the Tokyo Institute for Policy Studies, which is how he met his future wife, Maite Brias. In 1986, they got married and he moved to Menlo Park, CA to do market research in the electronics field. In 1990, they moved to Hawaii, where he continued doing market research (expanding into consumer research and competitive intelligence) for housing developers and a residential housing consulting firm. In 1997, he went out on his own, first focused on Oahu real estate and then on the other islands. In the last decade, he has done over 200 market analysis and project feasibility studies for over 100 clients.
 
He is also a trustee for the Mary Lucas Estate (2006+), which has several hundred acres on the north shore of Kauai. Prior to that, he was a trustee of the Henry Luce III trust (1985-2007).
 
Other than collecting good data and providing accurate summaries, he has a good sense of the qualitative aspects of the real estate market. In that, he owes thanks to his parents. His father, Paul Cassiday, was well-known in the business community for his work on large-scale resort and housing developments (Kaanapali, Whaler¹s Village, Princeville, Ko Olina and Kapolei for both Amfac and the James Campbell Estate). His mother was well known for interior design and decoration, with a number of houses that were featured in national publications (from a beach house at Malaekahana in Sunset Magazine in 1960 to a summer home on Fisher¹s Island, NY in Architectural Digest in 1985). 
 

He has been blessed by great mentors, supporters and friends (Clare Boothe Luce, Derek Taylor, Bob Panero, Harry Saunders, Jimmy Pflueger, Howard Hamamoto, Harvey Goth, Walter Hahn, Tom Zimmerman, Stanford Carr).
 
He is a member of the Hawaii Developer¹s Council, the Urban Land Institute, the Outrigger Canoe Club, the Manila Polo Club and the Pacific Club. His wife, Maria Teresa Brias, is from the Philippines, where her family has a beachfront residential development, Bamboo Beach, outside of Manila in Batangas. Their oldest son, Joey Manahan is a member of the State Legislature, representing the Kalihi district, and their youngest two sons are matriculating in college and high school.