Want to sell your home? A lockbox can be all the difference

Last night around 6pm I got a request to show my listings on the beach in Waialua, which are $3.2mil and $2.7mil. They are beautiful brand new houses on the water, with huge 4 car garages and great lanais overlooking the ocean.

When the request for the showing was made, it was late in the day, way too late to go up there and let anyone in. Also we needed to get a cleaner in there before the showing. Thankfully we had a lockbox.

Some sellers insist that they don't want a lockbox, because they are afraid people will somehow abuse it by keeping the code and coming back unannounced. I've never had this happen to me before. Well this situation, we would not have been able to show the property without the lockbox because the seller was out of town, and his friend who was house sitting was not available right away. The lockbox saved the day.

Some Realtors want to be at every showing, which I suppose is easier when you have only a couple listings. This is not only very difficult to do, it can actually keep you from selling your home. If people can't see your home, they're not going to buy it, period.

In Oahu most Realtors sell property on the entire island, because the island is only about 50 miles across. So if I have an appointment in Kailua and your house in Mililani needs a showing at the same time, the only answer is to have a lockbox. If you're serious about selling your real estate, you need to have a lockbox.

Make more money - Move to Oahu

Star did a great article today on the average pay in Hawaii compared to other states. People talk a lot about the high cost of living here in Hawaii, but in almost every case with my clients, they are getting a nice raise to come here. So I've always thought that pay in Hawaii was more than other states overall, but today's news article confirms it.

From Star:

Honolulu was 5 percent higher than the national average in 2006, ranking it in
the top tier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a comparison
of pay in 78 metropolitan areas across the nation, Honolulu ranked No. 17 in a
tie with Philadelphia, according to bureau economist Amar Mann. "Honolulu is
basically in the top 20 percent, which is the highest quintile," said Mann. The
uptick in pay, however, is counterbalanced by the higher cost of living and
inflation here. Consumer prices for Honolulu went up 5 percent over last year,
according to the bureau's report last month, which was more than double the 2.4
percent gain for the entire nation."

Kaneohe facelift should help real estate there

Last year I had a client looking at homes in Kaneohe, but after driving around for a couple ours they decided that Kaneohe just felt a little forgotten, run down. The stores were not nicely updated like Kailua town, and a lot of the city just felt a little dirty.

But recently Windward Mall completed a huge face lift that has made the mall a lot nicer to visit. It feels like a totally different place. When I drove some clients there 2 weeks ago, (a young couple) they really like the way the mall looked. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have liked it a year ago.

The mall house has new floors, new palm trees, lighting, murals, etched glass, nice new sitting areas and more. Borders and Starbucks opened, which makes it feel much more modern.

The Advertiser said that "Occupancy had fallen to less than 70 percent in 2001, and longtime tenants recall years of dwindling sales.Now, 96 percent of the mall space is filled and sales at in-line stores — those occupying less than 10,000 square feet of retail space — have risen 26 percent from July 2006."

A few weeks ago when I was driving through Kaneohe, I definitely noticed that it felt a lot different in the whole area around the mall too. Since everything around Kaneohe is about 20-30 years old, it makes sense that now would be the time when things get renovated.

The bottom line is that this should help Kaneohe real estate prices. Before it was sort of an ugly step sister to Kailua, which has nicer beaches and received a face lift a few years ago. Now Kaneohe can hold its head up high and draw buyers of homes again.

What Kaneohe has always had is location. With easy access to H3 and the Pali, you can get into town, to Aiea, and just about anywhere very easily. And of course there is the gigantic bay, which has great fishing, and lots of watersports. However, there are plenty of hammerhead sharks, so don't go swimming by yourself.

It's time to put Kaneohe back in your home search.

Nationwide new home sales fall, Hawaii real estate sales slow but steady

This morning a report came out that nationwide new homes sales dropped in August to the lowest level in seven years.

Sales of new homes dropped by 8.3 percent in August from July, the Commerce
Department reported, driving down sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
795,000 units. That was the lowest level since June 2000, when sales clocked in
at a pace of 793,000

However, August numbers were right in the middle of the credit crisis news, which kept many buyers on the sidelines. Since then the Fed dropped rates 50 basis points to make money more avaialable to banks.

On the flip side, The Commerce Department also reported Thursday that the economy grew at a 3.8 percent annual rate in the April-to-June quarter, the strongest showing in just over a year.

The Associated Press said last week that the odds of a recession are now higher than one-in-three but are still under 50 percent. In another report, fewer people signed up for unemployment benefits last week, raising hopes that the recent weakness in the jobs market won't be long lasting.

As usualy, the nationwide data is worse than the news in Hawaii. Most real estate in Oahu is selling just fine, but there is one builder in Ko Olina, Centex, that is having a hard time selling, and sales in Ocean Pointe have slowed enough for the builder to offer about 3% in concessions to the buyer, plus full upgrades.

VA will let you pay off your credit cards through escrow when you a buy a home in Hawaii

Did you know that if you use a VA loan to purchase a house, the lender will allow the seller to pay off your credit cards at closing? I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. We're doing it on a transaction right now.

In this case, my client is buying a condo in Kailua, in Poinciana Manor. It's a great little complex, and they got a great deal at $415k with $10k credit from the seller. We wanted that $10k credit to do some improvements to the property because the kitchen, bathrooms, and floors need updating.

Usually the seller's credit can only go toward a buyer's closing costs, but with a VA loan, the seller is allowed to pay money toward any of the buyer's credit cards as well. In this case, the buyer happens to want a gift card to Home Depot. So she can just go buy a home depot gift card on her credit card and have the seller pay it!
This is a great way for buyers to get money to do home improvements. Very simple, very legal. Thanks to Debbie Elliot at First Horizon home loans who taught me about this today.

Public Schools in Hawaii are getting better, but still have a long way to go.

One great concern for people moving to Oahu is the school system here, which has a terrible reputation. I've said many times that a lot of that is because Oahu schools are lumped in the school on the other islands. Kauai, Lanai, Molokai, and the Big Island have a lot of real local Hawaiian people, who often don't feel education is that important. they live a very relaxed life of fishing and hunting, and most of them are not well educated. All you have to do is drive around on Molokai for a while and you'll see what I mean. Beautiful island, nice people, but schooling is not high on their list of priorities.

So my point is Oahu schools aren't too bad. If we could take just the stats on Oahu schools and ignore the other islands, our stats would do a lot better. The top schools in the test scores are always Oahu schools. (although the last couple schools are always in Waianae.)

However, the Star reported

that Hawaii elementary schools are doing better in math and in reading than
middle-schoolers, but test scores for the two groups remain below national
averages, according to results released yesterday. Fourth- and eighth-graders in
the islands improved their marks in both subjects in the 2007 National
Assessment of Education Progress from when the test was last given two years
ago. About 15,000 Hawaii students took the national exam last winter. The most
troubling performance came in eighth-grade reading, with 20 percent, or just one
out of five students, meeting proficiency, compared with the national average of
29 percent.

The things is that Oahu actually does have a lot of great schools that are as good as many mainland schools. These are usually in the wealthier areas (unfortunately) but not always. A good principle and faculty can make a world of difference.

Usually the best schools are in Mililani Mauka, Hawaii Kai, Kailua (Aikahi Park) and for some reason, Sunset beach. There are also a few top schools in Aiea. You really have to judge case by case, rather than making a sweeping judgment of a city or area. Each school and each teacher is different.

Recently a brand new school was built in Ewa Beach at Ocean Pointe called Keoneula, which is supposed to be really high tech and great. But many of hte really old schools like Koko Head and Aina Haina are still in the top bracket.

The bottom line is that schooling is a high priority for our government, especially for our governor, and we're making progress. However it's difficult to know the actual results because of the schools from the other islands.

The Super Ferry Contraversy - one more reason to buy real estate on Oahu

The last few weeks have been filled with tension for those involved in the Super Ferry controversy. For thousands of people on Maui and Kauai, the Super Ferry represents what they fear about Oahu - more people.

Most of the state of Hawaii's people live on Oahu. With just a tiny fraction on the other islands, you might wonder why it's such a big deal for some people and their cars to visit them. The long and short of it is this - the neighbor islands have very limited resources, and the addition of a lot of people could damage the fragile balance between nature and people.

Appropriately, Oahu is called, "The Gathering Place," because most of the people in Hawaii are here. We welcome new people who move to our island because we have the infrastructure and resources to deal with the inflow. If you move to Oahu and buy real estate, you can expect your neighbors to welcome you with open arms. You can expect to feel at home quickly, to make friends quickly, to settle in to life in Hawaii quickly.

So, COME TO OAHU! The island still has room to grow, and our infrastructure can support a steady growth for years to come.

Have you ever considered buying real estate in Waikele?

Even though Oahu is a small island of only about 40 miles across, it can be really hard to decide where to live if you haven't lived here before. Well let me make a case for Waikele.

If you've only heard of it once or twice, then you've probably heard of it in the context of the Waikele outlet mall. It's a nice little (very little) outlet mall with some nice stores like Calvin Klein and Coach. But that's not what Waikele is all about.

Where is Waikele? It's easy to miss because there really isn't much you can see from the freeway, and there isn't anything to see other than houses and a few simple shopping centers. Waikele has great newer homes that are priced much lower than East Oahu, but without the traffic of the West side of Oahu. In fact Waikele is right about in the middle of H1, which means the middle south part of Oahu. It's 20 minutes to Mililani and 20 minutes to Down town Honolulu (without traffic.)

With great golf in the community, alot of the homes have some kind of golf course view. Waikele is a master planned project, which means the streets all make sense and look orderly, with homes on nice even sized lots. A lot of older Oahu is sort of a mish mash of homes on random sized lots with random construction. Waikele offers that nicer manicured look.

If you have to commute around the island to multiple areas, Waikele can be a great option because you can get anywhere on the island within about 30 minutes (except Hauula and Punaluu. It takes an hour to get there no matter where you are.)

I like the Lowes nearby, Home Depot only an exit away, and the nice variety of homes and condos. Waikele is harder to find in the MLS and in home searches, because technically it's in the city of Waipahu, which for the most part is kind of run down.

If you want to search Waikele, the way to do it is to search for homes built since about 1980 in Waipahu. That will give you mostly homes in Waikele, because Waipahu homes are older.

Don't forget Waikele. Great homes, great shopping, centrally located in Oahu, and good prices for homes.

New City Ferry Means Less traffic in Oahu's future

Traffic has been a growing problem in Oahu for some time now. Actually there is pretty bad traffic in the entire state. Especially bad are the commutes from Ewa Beach and Kapolei to Honolulu. Recently I've noticed that it's getting worse and worse from Kailua and Kaneohe to town too. It can take about 40 minutes to get from Kailua into town, and depending on where you're going in town, it can take a while once you get into town too.

To relieve the traffic a bit, the The city of Honolulu has launched its new ferry which will take people from the west side into town. It's called simply, "TheBoat." The new Oahu commuter ferry service started serving the public last Monday.

From the Star:

TheBoat now makes three weekday trips in each direction between Barbers Point
Harbor in Kalaeloa and Aloha Tower. The ferries is linked at Barbers Point to new bus routes serving. From Aloha Tower, buses will go to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and to Waikiki via Ala Moana. A single fare pays for the one hour ferry ride and the buses at each end

The one-way fare for adults is $2, and bus passes also will be honored. Fresh-brewed coffee and a "grab-and-go" breakfast will be available for purchase on TheBoat, and restrooms are also available.

How many people will actually take the ferry? I'm not sure, but if you have to drive from Barber's point all the way to town each day, I'm sure it would be nice to sit on a boat instead, assuming you don't get seasick. The traffic driving from Waianae and Ewa Beach is pretty bad, so any relief we can get would really help. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say this: if the traffic problem in Ewa was completely resolved, home prices there would skyrocket.

I know it's not just the traffic, but that is the biggest issue for Ewa Beach. That's why this ferry and also the train that is supposed to be built in 15-20 years will be huge for that community. If there was a lot less traffic, retailers would be willing to build down there, and way more people would be willing to live there.

What I don't understand is - if the city is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a train, why not just spend a fraction of that widening the roads in and Ewa and Kapolei? Homes in Ewa and Kapolei are of great quality, and being newer, larger, and cheaper, they are markets that have alot of potential if the infrastructure would support it.

On that topic, now that the new courthouse is coming to Kapolei in a couple years, there should be quite a bit less traffic coming all the way into town from the west side. I don't know how many people come to the courthouse in Honolulu everyday, but it has to be in the thousands. I've been there at 7am and there is a line at every door.

If you think about the number of people coming all the way from the west side to the courthouse, and even the people in Aiea and Pearl City going to court, you realize that the new court and all the surrounding things that will come with it are going to be great for west side real estate prices.

The more Kapolei grows, the more that West Oahu real estate will benefit.

Hawaii has high theft, low murder. Would you rather be robbed or killed?

Is it safe to live in Oahu? I'm asked that question frequently. People say they want a safe area. As if maybe if they don't say that, I'm going to put them in the middle of a war zone. Well safe could mean many things. To me, safe means I won't get killed or attacked. Most of Oahu is very safe in those terms, meaning I probably won't get murdered.

But Star Bulletin reported this morning that Hawaii has the highest larceny-theft rate in the country in 2006 despite an 11 percent decrease from the previous year, according to statistics the FBI released yesterday.

So maybe I'll get robbed? Hawaii had an 11.9% reduction in all property crimes in '06 but still had the fifth-highest property crime rate in the country. Hawaii also had the 6th highest motor vehicle theft rate last year despite a 15 percent drop compared with 2005.

"Fueled by double-digit increases in robberies and aggravated assaults, a 10.1
percent increase in violent crime hit Hawaii in 2006 compared with the previous
year. However, the state's violent crime rate of 281.2 was the 16th lowest in
2006. And we had the fourth-lowest murder and negligent manslaughter rate in the country last year. "

Would you rather be murdered or robbed? I guess what this says is that we have a lot of poor people who want to steal your car or wallet, but they are not the violent type. Most likely the high theft is because a lot of youth grow up very poor in Hawaii, especially in Waianae. Also a lot of the theft occurs when tourists leave valuables in their cars.

As usual, The DC was the murder capital of the country. It also had the highest rates of violent crime, robbery and aggravated assault, by wide margins over the next highest. Great, so that's what the politicians do for fun. I wonder if the stats would be any different if they just took them from the capitol.

Honolulu real estate isn't expensive, not even close.

Cost is relative. If you live in Haiti, a hamburger for $3 is expensive. If you live in North Dakota, a house for $200k is expensive. And if you live in Hawaii, there are places around the country that are just as expensive or more.

In Alamo California, the median home price is $1,499,795. Now that seems really high for a median price. Oahu median home prices are just $650k right now. Whoa! That's cheap :)

In Franklin Lakes NJ, the median home price is $1,337,877.
Here is one I was surprised by: Lake Forest IL has a median home price of $1,186,521. What? It's more expensive to live in IL than in Oahu? Now that just doesn't make any sense at all.

Then there is some place with the goofy name Wolf Trap VA with a Median home price of $894,122.

There are several cities in Connecticut with over a million dollars median home price. In Darien, Conn, the median price is $1,464,129. Now maybe you expected some east coast and west coast areas to have sky high prices, but you would expect Arizona? There is some city in AZ called Paradise Valley with a Median home price of $2,075,930. WHAT THE?

It costs about 3 times as much to live in AZ than it does to live in Hawaii? What are all these people thinking living there? They should move to Oahu!

And usually when I think of Texas, I think of gigantic houses on 10 acres for about $100k. But in a place called Highland Park, the Median home price is $1,603,608. Hello? ? I thought it was still in Texas?!

Now of course the most expensive has to be CA. A Silicone valley suburb called Los Altos hills, where the Median home price is $2,371,601. And Hillsborough, CA has the highest at a Median home price of $2,606,764. They don't even allow condos and townhouses at all. None. Just gigantic houses.

So the next time you want to complain that the prices of homes in Oahu are too high, just be glad you don't live in one of the communities above. It could be way worse. Besides, you get to live in Hawaii!

Nationwide, housing declines. Oahu real estate bucks the trend.

NAR reported this morning that nationwide Housing markets continued to decline in August. The number of existing home sales dropped for the 13th straight month.

Sales fell 4.3 percent from July. Sales have fallen 12.8 percent since last August's pace of 6.31 million homes.

Lawrence Yun, senior economist for NAR, blamed the loss on the mortgage market crisis. "The unusual disruptions in the mortgage market, including a significant rise in jumbo loan rates, resulted in a fairly high number of postponed or cancelled sales, with many buyers having to search for other financing when loan commitments fell through," he said in a statement.

Some good news - prices broke a 12-month decline. The national median existing-home price for all housing types rose 0.2 percent to $224,500 in August from a year ago, when the median was $224,000.

Wow, I am so happy to be in Hawaii real estate and not anywhere else in the US. Although yesterday I was told that the market in NY is pretty great if you're in or near Manhattan. A friend of mine had to stand in line to buy a 1bedroom condo for about $550k. Amazing prices and markets in both Honolulu and NY!

Mortgage rates aren't lower yet

It's been a week now since the Fed lowered their rates 0.5%, but mortgage rates haven't dropped at all. Everyone in Oahu seems to be wondering if mortgage rates are going to come down so that the price of real estate will be more affordable. If rates go down, prices can go up, because it's cheaper to borrow money. With the average price of real estate Oahu around $650,000, even a little bit lower mortgage will be helpful.

But in fact, rates are higher now than they were last week. Why? When the Fed lowered the Funds rate, the stock market rallied for several days straight, which sent bond prices down. Whenever money flows into stocks, money flows out of bonds (usually) which send the rates of bonds up.

Bond rates move in the opposite direction as bond prices. So as stocks moved up this past week, bond rates moved up, even though the Fed funds rate is lower. But over time, probably a few weeks, bond prices will come back as more money flows in. So rates should come back down by next month. If the Fed keeps dropping its rate, chances are bond prices will continue to go up slowly over time.

However, during the period from 1999 to 2001, the Fed lowered rates several times while mortgage rates actually went up. Yes, UP. So does the Fed have an effect on mortgage rates at all? Probably not. Mortgage rates are more controlled by the economy and the stock market.

So don't hold your breath for lowere mortgage rates, but do watch the economy because ultimately that drives rates and the prices of homes.

The Yen is back, and the Japanese are coming to buy Hawaii real estate!

As a naturalized American Citizen, I love America, but I also love my roots in Japan. So I frequently watch the Japanese economy and particularly, the Yen. Recently the US Dollar has gotten hammered by the Yen, which reached a 5 year high of 113Yen/Dollar.

When that happened, my mom took all her Yen and changed it for US Dollars. I think she had several thousand dollars worth, and I was able to dig up about $100 worth. But that's besides the point.

The point is that as the Yen gains strength, it becomes cheaper and cheaper for Japanese buyers to come to Hawaii, buy homes, play golf, etc. In the 90's it was the Japanese boom and bust that drove the entire market in Oahu. But now, with a healthy inflow of mainland money, the Japanese buyers would be a great addition to our market. They've been pretty quiet for the last few years (enduring a 10year recession didn't help) but now with the Yen so strong, those that have money are coming back to our market.

What does this mean? In the end, it means the only thing it can mean - the price of Hawaii Real Estate is bound to go up even more. The Japanese are an incredibly powerful economic force in Hawaii tourism, and in the past, they made the price of homes in Oahu go crazy. This time it's more likely that they will add a much smaller push to the market, but our market is so small, that a small push equals a huge gain in prices.

Watch out - now that the Fed has lowered rated .50%, it's very likely that the dollar will do even worse against the Yen, making the power of Japanese buyers greater and greater.

Affordable housing on Hawaii - It just shows how crazy our market is

At the Country Club Village high-rise project in Salt Lake you can buy a condo for $218,000 to $397,500, which is incredibly cheap for Oahu real estate.

The Advertiser reported this morning that over 500 hopefully home buyers were in line yesterday to buy one of these affordable condos. Some people lined up 2 days early and camped out. One bedroom units are priced between $218,000 and $283,000 while two bedrooms go for between $321,000 to $397,500.By law, half of the units in the project must be owner occupied.

While this is great news for some local people looking for affordable housing, it just shows how huge the problem has become in Oahu real estate – there just aren’t enough places for people to live. The lack of available housing continues to drive the market up, in spite of the broader market forces that have lately rocked mainland real estate.

With supply short and demand about the same as the last few years, no wonder the Hawaii real estate market hasn’t seen the declines that the mainland markets have.

Construction of the new project is supposed to be completed in March 2009, which probably means it will actually be done in June or July. By then, how much will the condos be worth? Double? Who knows.

In these affordable housing type of projects, you usually end up getting a lot of units owned by people who don’t care too much. The units and the building get abused, so the investment value may not be there. You won’t see people with deep pockets lining up for these things, so the people who live there may not have the money to keep their condos in nice condition or update them when they get old.

You have to be careful investing in units like this, but hey if you need an affordable place to live, it’s a great option.

The one big concern that I have and everyone else has is the traffic. The traffic in Salt Lake is already crazy, and this giant building with hundreds of cars is not going to help.

When shopping for a house, it's ok (and good) to bring your kids.

Last week I was showing property to a family that has been planning to move to Oahu for some time. They are relocating with their company, and bringing 2 kids with them. For the showings, they brought their kids.

Sometimes people ask me if it's ok to bring kids on showings, and I always say yes. If you're moving from out of state, Hawaii is a new fun place that kids should learn about along with you. If you make them part of the home buying process, they're more likely to enjoy the house, and less likely to resent you for choosing a house they don't like.

Of course, kids don't have the best taste in houses, but if you let them see what you're looking at, even if you buy the house they don't choose, at least they have seen it and they're familiar with it. Moving to Hawaii is a huge life change, so anything you can do to make it easier on your kids is going to make the move easier for everyone, not just them. Unhappy kids make for an unhappy family.

You should take your kids inside the houses, and ask them questions about the house. "Do you like this one?" Maybe if you're afraid they won't like it, you can ask them something more fun, like "Do you think this yard would be big enough for a dog?" Getting your kids a pet when you move to Hawaii will make their transition easier. Think about letting them choose a pet and name it so they have a new friend they can play with and show to other kids.

Make the house buying process coincide with the pet buying process, and you may help your kids have an easier time in their new home.

A house for sale in Triangle - the house from HGTV's "My House Is Worth What?"

A couple months ago I was on the HGTV show "My House Is Worth What?" We featured a beautiful home in Triangle, which is just above Portlock. Many people have called and emailed me saying they saw the show.

Well I listed the house a few weeks ago, and I can't believe it's still on the market. With panaramic ocean and mountain views and over 3500sqft of living space, at $2.2million FS, it's the best deal in the area.

The owner spent about $400k remodeling the house over the last few years, so it shows great. With a nice pool overlooking the ocean, and 5 bedrooms, it should suit just about anyone looking for a home in this area.

Triangle is the tract above Portlock, though most of the people in the area don't even call it Triangle, they just say Portlock. Houses in this area range from about $1mil for a house that needs to be gutted, up to about $18million for a house on the water.

For this view, you pay about $300k more than you would without a view. You can see the ocean from almost every room in the house, which is a very unique feature, even in this neighborhood.

We've had several showings, but we happened to list it right before the mortgage crisis hit, so I think that's why there was some pause. Now that rates are going down and there seems to be more confidence, I think the house should sell quickly.

Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Summit meets in Waikiki

The Hawaii’s 2050 Sustainability Summit took place in Waikiki yesterday to discuss the plan designed for Hawaii until 2050, addressing the issues of infrastructure, growth, natural resources, education, housing, and trying to predict future problems.

The Advertiser ran a great article on it.

The state's infrastructure is deteriorating, housing is insufficient, and Hawaii is too reliant on imported food and energy. The number of people coming to the state is using up the infrastructure and natural resources faster than they can be replenished.

The plan calls for more food to be locally produced (mainly farming on the North Shore and Big island), more energy from renewable resources and growth to be under control, the biggest concerns.

Of the goals set at the Summit, these are of particular interest to people involved in real estate in Oahu:

GOAL I: SUSTAINABILITY IS SHARED - Living sustainably is part of our daily practice in Hawaii
1. Develop a sustainability ethic.
• Integrate sustainability principles and practices into public and private school curricula.
• Develop a statewide marketing and public awareness campaign on sustainability principles and practices.

2. Conduct ongoing forums and dialogue amongst government, environmental, business, labor, and community groups to promote collaboration and progress on achieving Hawaii’s sustainability goals.

GOAL II: ECONOMY - Our diversified and globally competitive economy enables us to meaningfully live, work and play in Hawaii.
1. Develop a more diverse and resilient economy.
2. Support the building blocks for economic stability and sustainability.
• Recognize and support established industries such as the visitor industry, military, construction and agriculture as strong components of the Hawaii’s economy.
• Provide incentives for industries to operate in more sustainable ways. • Ensure funding for infrastructure improvements.
• Attract local and outside capital and investments in Hawaii’s economic activities.
• Reduce regulations and lower the cost of running a business.
3. Increase the competitiveness of Hawaii’s workforce.
• Invest in and improve our public education system to provide for a skilled workforce.
• Create incentives for workforce skills upgrade training programs.
• Increase student enrollment in post-secondary educational programs.
• Adopt living wage guidelines and measurements.

GOAL III: NATURAL RESOURCES - Our natural resources are responsibly and respectfully used, replenished and preserved for future generations
1. Reduce reliance on fossil (carbon-based) fuels.
• Expand renewable energy opportunities.
• Increase energy efficiency in private and public buildings, including retrofitting existing buildings.
• Improve energy efficiencies and options in transportation.
• Encourage the production and use of locally produced biofuels.
• Adopt building codes that encourage "green building" technology.
2. Conserve water.
• Reduce water consumption by means of education and incentives.
• Encourage greater production and use of recycled water.
• Continually review water-conserving technologies for possible incorporation in county building codes
• Encourage price structures for water use that furthers conservation.
• Require water conservation plans from large private users.
3. Increase recycling.
4. Provide greater protection for land-, freshwater- and ocean-based habitats.
• Strengthen enforcement and enhancement of habitat management.
• Fund public and private conservation education.
• Improve management of protected watershed areas.
• Incorporate the values and philosophy of the ahupua'a resource management system as appropriate.
• Establish funding for invasive species control and native ecosystems protection.
5. Conserve agricultural, open space and conservation lands and resources.
• Create compact patterns of urban development.
• Encourage "smart growth" concepts in land use and community planning.
6. Research and strengthen management initiatives to respond to rising sea levels, coastal hazards and erosion.

GOAL IV: COMMUNITY - Our community is strong, healthy, vibrant and nurturing, providing safety nets for those in need.
1. Strengthen social safety nets.
• Review and increase affordable housing opportunities for households up to 140 percent of median income.
• Ensure access to affordable healthcare for all residents.
• Provide access to long-term care, elderly housing and social and human services.
• Invest in greater prevention and treatment of those suffering from substance abuse.
• Increase high school graduation rates.
2. Reduce traffic congestion
• Increase access to public transportation.
• Improve bicycle and pedestrian pathways.
3. Identify and prioritize infrastructure "crisis points" that need fixing.
4. Strengthen public education
• Support educational initiatives that span early childhood through lifelong learning.
• Increase awareness of and competency in financial literacy and asset-building.
5. Provide access to diverse recreational facilities and opportunities.

Ok, You're planning to move to Hawaii, but when should you start looking at houses?

Most of my blog posts are prompted by questions that people ask me by email or phone. This week someone emailed me and said they are planning to move in April, about 8 months out, wondering if they are looking at houses too soon.

Well the short answer is you should start as soon as possible.

As soon as you even the thought of moving to Hawaii, even if your plans are not definite, you should start looking at homes here. The more time you have to look at homes, the more you'll understand our market. You'll see that homes in nice condition tend to sell in about 45 days, and you'll be able to see the sales prices very close the list price in certain areas.

Also the longer you have to look at the market, the more you'll be able to get a feel for what type of homes come up for sale in certain areas. For instance, in Hawaii Kai there are only a few homes on the marina for sale at any given time. If something comes up that you really like, you might have to move on it before your time to move comes, because only a few are listed each year. Maybe 30 a year, which is not a lot.

In Mililani, you'll find that some homes have an ocean view, but not many, because it's about 15 miles inland. In Kailua, only a few homes a year are listed for sale that are lake front, on Enchanted lake. Or if you want Lanikai, you better start looking really early, like a year, because half the listings in Lanikai are completely junk, and the other half tend to be about $5million.

If you study the market in Oahu for a while, you'll find that in many areas, homes are each unique, because a) there were not big home developers planning this island and b) depending on type of person lived in the house, there could be a lot of strange improvements made over the years.

You just can't be too prepared when looking for a house in Oahu. The more you know, and the longer you have to learn, the better your buying experience will be. Then if you come to Oahu and spot something that you know hasn't been on the market for a long time, you'll be aware that you should act on it fast. I've had several clients who didn't act fast enough or write an offer high enough, who ended up really disappointed later.

I had one client who kept wanting to offer about $20k under the asking price, even though I kept telling him he would never get the offer accepted. Each of 3 times, his offer was flat out rejected and sold to someone else within days. Why? Because he didn't understand that the market in Oahu is not like the mainland. Our supply is limited and the sellers are very confident (in most areas, not Ewa Beach.)

So if you even have an inkling that you may be coming to Oahu in the next year or two, it's time to start watching the market. Email me all your parameters and I'll setup an automatic Hawaii MLS search for homes for you so you can keep track of what's going on.