Honolulu welcomes bicycle riders! Wins award!

This article was published in the Star this morning. "The League of American Bicyclists awarded Honolulu an honorable mention in its Bicycle Friendly Community program."

I've never thought too much about it, but I do see a lot of bicycles on this island. It seems like every few weeks there is some major race. Last weekend was the century ride, in which people ride 100 miles around Oahu. That must be one heck of a ride.

"The city recently released a sustainability plan that calls for the completion of an islandwide Bikeway Master Plan by 2008. City planners are also integrating bike paths into proposed development around rail transit stations. "

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.

Target is coming to Hawaii and bringing hundreds of jobs. Every job helps Hawaii real estate!

The Honolulu Advertiser reported today that "Target plans to open a 135,000-square-foot store at the former Costco site in the Bougainville Industrial Park and a larger store in Kapolei in March 2009. The Minneapolis-based company will employ between 200 and 300 people per store."

Ok so most of the jobs will be lower level jobs that pay very little, but there are also management jobs, corporate jobs that will bring new people into the state, and other related work with the construction, advertising, and logistics of bringing 2 new Targets to Oahu.

My wife cannot wait. I think she will camp out.

The point is, with 500 new jobs, there are certainly going to be some people moving into the state to do some of the upper level management. Even 10 new buyers in our market is a good thing, on an island where only a few hundred properties need to sell each month.

As Oahu continues to grow, it continues to be the place to own real estate in America. With our limited supply of homes and the ever growing demand, the prices of homes in Oahu can only go up!