Tony Kawaguchi, M.Div., R.A.
REMAX 808 Realty
The best Real Estate office in Hawaii!
808-395-5776
alohatony@gmail.com
10 reasons to buy a home in Hawaii now!
Thinking of buying a house in Hawaii? Here are 10 reasons to buy now!
To counter the unbalanced discussion on the real estate market, I
thought this list of 10 reasons to buy a house would be helpful. Here
goes:
1 - The doomsayers have been wrong for 5 years. I remember in 2000
people were saying that things were about to slow down. I know a guy in
Newport Beach CA that has been waiting since then, and now he would
give anything to turn back the clock. Who knows, prices could keep
going up for 5 more years! No one can predict the future.
2 - Hawaii is running out of space. The buildable land in Hawaii is
getting harder to come by, which means less new houses, which means at
some point, demand will outpace supply to a huge degree. One day when
the state says we are done building, what will prices do? You guess.
3 - Interest rates are going up. Buying a house now could save you
thousands of dollars in monthly payments, and in the day to day, isn't
the monthly payment what we really feel in our wallets? Equity is nice,
but it does nothing for our monthly budget. Don't wait till you have to
pay 9% on a loan.
4 - Renting gets you nothing. You earn nothing, you have no equity,
there is no tax write off. Mortgage interest is a great deduction on
your 1040's, while rent is... rent.
5 - If you're planning to live in a house long term, you can ride out
any market fluctuations. As long as you're not trying to flip a house
after a year, you don't need to time the market.
6 - Stocks are doing nothing. The Dow and the NASDAQ are about flat for
the last 5 years. You don't get any write off for flat stocks, you've
probably earned nothing on them since 1999, and you can't live in a
stock.
7 - Your family will feel more at home. I've lived in rentals and in my
own homes, and I can tell you one thing for sure, pride of ownership,
that feeling that it's your own home - there is value that is beyond
just dollars.
8 - Ownership gives you control of your future. Recently more and more
landlords are selling off their properties to pocket their equity. In
fact I just sold a rental for a landlord, in this case, to the tenant.
Of course the tenant wished that he could have bought it 5 years ago
for half the price. Is your landlord thinking of selling? Then where
will you go? Owning the house assures you that you can stay put.
9 - If the value of homes stays flat, you still earn equity. The great
thing about mortgage payments is that a part of it goes to you. It's
the most automatic savings plan out there. Even if the home loses some
value, your monthly payments can gain you equity in the house faster
than the value can drop. Eventually (30 years?) you will own the
property free and clear - RENT FREE! So who cares what the house is
worth, one day you will have no rent!
10 - There's more selection now than there has been a long time. With
more homes on the market, buyers are able to make offers under the list
price and choose from a wider selection of inventory.
