HAWAI'I LIFEHawaii Foreclosures up 503%
In a post at examiner.com, William Sager shows that Hawaii foreclosures are up 503% from this same time last year. Sager concludes that,
“People who bought their home a decade ago are still in pretty good shape, but folks who bought during the recent real estate bubble are upside down and struggling.”
This is a pretty broad statement, but I think that in some foreclosure instances this could very well be the case. I do see many more foreclosures becoming available in my neighborhood. A 500% increase does not seem out of line.
Sager also thinks that,
“Many homes being foreclosed were purchased as second homes by people who wanted a piece of paradise. With the current economic decline, people are loosing their investments whether its real estate or 401Ks.”
From what I hear, there is a lot of truth to this statement, but something that I don’t have the stats to back up.
Despite this huge increase, Hawaii still has one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation. And while I feel for people losing their homes, it does give others an opportunity to purchase property that they could not otherwise afford.
Our rates are low, but, they are accelerating. On Kauai, if you purchased from 2004, you may have negative equity and that is creating excellent opportunities for buyers. Some sellers are not leveraged, but the ones that are, must be aggressive or risk the possibility of losing the property.
Although Hawaii was up 503%, Honolulu still ranked 150th in the nation out of 200 metro areas studied. See: http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20090422_Honolulu_foreclosure_rate_is_150th_nationwide.html