Around noon on Saturday a week ago, as my clients and I stopped for lunch during a day of looking at land parcels, a haze rolled in, masking the gorgeous views of Maui we’d enjoyed all morning and turning blue sky and ocean into a flat gray. Our characteristic trade winds had disappeared, and for [...]
As with buying a home anywhere, personal taste, lifestyle and budget will always be the biggest influencing factors. However, in Hawaii, there are some aspects unique to the islands that you may not know about, but should always keep in mind. 1. Homes built to take advantage of prevailing tradewinds: Hawaii can be humid, especially [...]
There was a recent article in the Star Bulletin about the Queen Emma Land Company taking back a leasehold property in Waikiki. The property in question was the White Sands Waikiki Resort Club run as a time-share property by Celebrity Resorts. Negotiations to renew the long term lease were not successful, most likely because, “(t)he [...]
Hawaii’s housing market may begin to see increasing numbers of sales in the coming months according to some prominent economists and professionals in both the real estate and construction industries. Harvey Shapiro, Research Economist at the Honolulu Board of REALTORS®, noted that O‘ahu’s relatively low inventory is keeping prices more stable than in other areas [...]
Yesterday, Hawaii’s Governor Linda Lingle signed Senate Bill 34 into law. This long awaited amendment to Hawaii’s Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act (Act 137), provides an exemption for licensed real estate brokers and salespersons from being defined as “distressed property consultants” under Act 137. Most buyers and sellers were (and are) completely unaware of the [...]
Today was the long-awaited first meeting of the West Hawaii Planning Commission. Until this year, all decisions regarding issues such as zoning variances and subdivision applications were handled by a single commission. If you’ve spent a day driving the circumference of the Big Island, you realize that the East (Hilo) side of the island has [...]
HawaiiLife.com is seeking an organized and motivated person for full-time employment in an entry level position at our headquarters in Hanalei, Kauai. Pay at this position will be commensurate with experience. Health insurance offered after probationary period. Opportunity HawaiiLife.com is a fast growing technology company operating in the real estate industry. This is an entry [...]
First Time home buyer’s credit can help first time buyer’s with their downpayments.
On the Kohala Coast of the Big Island (Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani and Waikoloa Beach resorts) , we’ve had an unusual winter “high season” for real estate sales. The season was high but the prices, for the most part, were bargain basement. No, the foreclosure wave has not yet hit our Big Island beaches; I’m [...]
In the current “Buyer’s Market”, everyone is on the hunt for the best possible deal. Which leads us all to the question…. what exactly is a “deal” when it comes to buying property in today’s Hawaii real estate market? I think we all have an intuitive feeling that there’s some sort of accepted benchmark of [...]
From an optimist’s p0int of view, April’s Oahu real estate stats were encouraging in that home prices are only off $15,000 from March & condo prices up $5,000.  Home prices are up 8.4% and condos up 1.6% since the beginning of the year. Overall inventory actually decreased again with 79 less homes and 68 less condo listings than March. [...]
There has been so much publicity over the last year about the implosion of the Subprime loan market, Alt-A Type of loans, and Pay-Option ARM loans. Investors who purchased in the islands often procured these types of riskier loans. Today I saw a Houston Chronicle article with some great statistics about the increase in foreclosures [...]
After nearly 4 years of falling home prices and a market that has been steadily sliding toward “the bottom”, I must admit seeing a headline that read “Big Island Home Sales, Prices Fall Sharply” on my iPhone while showing property to multi-million dollar home buyers was a bit shocking. “Honestly,” I asked myself, “Could it [...]
About 400,000 people live in Honolulu, the capital of the State of Hawai’i located on the island Oahu. Honolulu is the 11th largest city in the United States and largest city in the Hawaiian Island chain. Buying a piece of Honolulu real estate is best if you want a serious career in banking, commerce, law, [...]
If you have a little bit of money saved up, I’ve got a great listing in Kaneohe. It’s a 1 bedroom, 1 bath unit in Puu Iki, a complex right off Lilipuna Road & walking distance to shops and restaurants. Unlike most of Hawaii’s condos, Puu Iki is “relatively new” having been built in 1991. [...]
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