This beautiful house at the top of Kamehame ridge (just below Na Pali Haweo) is now under contract, after just a few days on the market.  There wer 2 offers immediately, both well above the original asking price of $949k, so the seller decided to raise the price to $989k after just 2 days on market.

This house has a great ocean view from the master bedroom and from the massive grassy back yard.  With over 2300sqft and 4 bedrooms, it's got plenty of space, and room for a pool in the future. 

The kitchen has granite and new appliances, and the house has just recently been renovated with over $50k of upgrades. 

Just take a look at the amount of grass behind this house.  If you could turn it around, you would see the Ocean over looking Hawaii Kai! 

For $989k, this is a great house.  The fact that they had 2 offers over the original asking price shows you how strong the market in Hawaii Kai is right now.  It is definitely a rising market, thanks to low inventory, low interest rates, and prices that fell 20% in 2007 and 2008.  

Congrats to my clients on their new home!

According to an article in USA Today, a massive new study by Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index of Americans' attitudes shows that Honolulu is America's Third Happiest City.

The Gallup-Healthways Index did interviews with more than 353,000 Americans during 2009, asking them to assess their jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind and communities.

"Residents of large cities — those with a population of 1 million or more — generally report higher levels of well-being and more optimism about the future than those in small or medium-sized cities. In small cities, at 250,000 or less, people are more likely to feel safe walking alone at night and have enough money for housing."

Nine of the 10 cities that fare best on "life evaluation," assessments of life now and expectations in five years, boast a major university, a big military installation or a state Capitol — institutions that presumably provide some insulation from recession.

The top 10 cities include four in California, two in Utah and one each in Colorado and Hawaii.  I'm surprised we aren't #1!  Who doesn't want to live in Hawaii? 

This helps explain the high price of Hawaii real estate - you pay to be happier :) 

The June housing sales numbers are out, and they look good!

Oahu single-family home sales were up by 8.4 percent in June, from 263 to 285, and the median price was also up, to $575,000 from $570,000.

Oahu Condo sales saw the most dramatic jump up, 38 percent higher than last June, at 396 sales, although the median price was 3.2 percent lower, at $300,000.

Sales in June sold faster than last year, with the average home selling in just 32 days, down from 48!  Condos sold in 31 days, down from 47.

The trend is continuing - mainly led be very low inventory and low interest rates. I've seen some sellers get more than 10% above their asking price! 

Yesterday I showed this beautiful house in Queens gate that is listed for $925,000.  With 4 bedrooms, a pool, and a huge master bathroom, it had everything the buyers were looking for. 

We had a nice discussion about buying a house right now.  I thought there were some great insights, which leads me to pose a question:

If you aren't buying right now, WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

• Lower interest rates? 
• A housing bubble?
• A massive economic collapse? 
• 10% unemployment?
• Home prices to fall 20% ? 
• Inflation?  (prices of houses go up too, you know)  
• Global financial chaos?
• Dozens of bank failures?
• Government takeover of Fannie Mae?

ALL OF THAT ALREADY HAPPENED! 

We literally just endured the biggest financial collapse in our generation, and Hawaii real estate prices dropped about 15-20%. Is there some other worse event that could make prices drop more?  If so, what would that be?  The collapse of giant insurance companies?  Done. 

The US Government printing billions of dollars?  Done!  Financial chaos on a global level?  DONE!!! 

Some will argue that we aren't yet at the bottom of the housing market, and I would ask those people - What horrible event will occur that hasn't already???

The MetroMonitor report examined indicators through the first quarter of 2010 in the areas of employment, unemployment, output, home prices, and foreclosure rates for the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas.

It finds that:  The metropolitan areas that have had the most consistent job growth over the past year are Augusta, Austin, Charleston, Chattanooga, Dallas, Honolulu, Jackson, and Raleigh.

Thirty-two metropolitan areas had recovered their pre-recession levels of output in the fourth quarter, including Honolulu, which had continuous output growth since at least the second quarter of 2009. Most of these metropolitan areas are state capitals or other government or military centers.

Housing markets remained weak, with house prices lower in the first quarter of 2010 than in the first quarters of 2007 and 2009 in all of the 100 largest metropolitan areas.  Employment has begun to grow and housing markets are no longer in free-fall in some of the metropolitan areas that suffered most from the housing bust during the last three years.

 Cnn took the report and created this list to the left. 

Waikiki beach is getting much needed sand.  I was down there this past weekend with my church and there are some areas where there is very little sand at all. Tourists come to Hawaii to sit on the white sand, not on rocks, not in chairs.

State officials plan to spend $2.5million to restore a portion of sand on Waikiki Beach by taking it from nearby shoals, widening the 1,700-foot-long beach by about 37 feet between the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and Kuhio Beach.

The state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands has completed its environmental assessment and plans to apply for government permits. The project is scheduled to start in January or February and would widen the beach back to its 1985 width.  The sand would be pumped to a dewatering site in an enclosed basin
within the eastern Kuhio Beach crib walls and then spread to the rest of
the beach.

One of the areas where the sand removal is planned is between surfing areas known as Queen's and Canoes,  which  will help to restore a channel that has been covered with sand from the beaches.

The $2.5 million for the project includes $1.5 million from the state and $500,000 from Kyo-ya Hawaii, owner of several nearby hotels. That might sound like a lot, but the sand is what people come to Hawaii for.  No sand = less tourists. 

For once this is a government spending plan I can support.

This house is located just one house back from the sand at V-land, one of Oahu's best surf spots on the North Shore.  Built in 2008 in gated Sunset Beach Colony, this beautiful 2775 sqft house is just amazing. It's about 15,000ft of land and only a few steps to the sand, a surfer's dream!

Homes in this neighborhood are worth up to $5 million, so this one is a bargain at $2,395,000.

The house has wood floors, granite counters, board and batton construction, and a huge open great room. The lanai off the great room has stacking pocket doors that look over the ocean view. Check out the kitchen here.

My clients flew in for the week to buy a vacation home, and this was definitely the best one we saw out of about a dozen around the island.  Congrats to my clients on this great purchase!

This house has a beautiful ocean view from Maunalani heights, overlooking Honolulu and looking down into Diamond Head. 

After viewing more than 20 homes around Oahu, my clients chose this brand new house with over 2700sqft and a massive 4 car garage. 

Check out this beautiful kitchen with granite, stainless steele, and a feature I had never seen before - self closing cabinet doors.  I had seen self closing drawers before, but the doors on these cabinets do the same. Try slamming them, and they just slowly close without a sound. 

This house has many great features: 

• Insulated attic
• Low-e windows
• Stacking glass lanai doors 
• Travertine tile floors downstairs
• Brazillian Cherry wood floors upstairs

There's a lot more, but the best thing is a amazing ocean view from every room!

I got an email this morning from a lender that I work with - 4.25% 30 fixed rates with 2 points origination. 

This makes buying a home incredibly cheap, cheaper than it has been in a long time, maybe ever.  Everybody should be buying a house and holding it for 30 yrs.  I'm serious. 

My friend from England told me this week than British buyers can hope for a 5 yr fixed rate at most, and usually more like 2 yrs fixed.  He was shocked the US has rates fixed for 30 yrs, and was very excited about buying a house. 

Most Americans have no idea  how good we have it right now!  To put this in perspective, during the mid 70's and early 80's, mortgage rates were up  in the 13%-17% range.  That would make buying a house basically impossible for most of us today. 

Do it now and hold the house forever. Or at least for 30 years. 

The average Honolulu house costs about $600k. If you borrow $500k of that, it costs you $2459/month at 4.25%. 

At 7%, it costs $3326/ month. 

At 10%, it costs $4387/month.

At 15%, it costs $6322/month.  

Personal income in Hawaii grew at the sixth-fastest
rate in the nation through the first quarter of this year, according to an article this morning in the Star.

Hawaii residents' personal income rose by 1.35 percent compared with
the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the report released by the
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The personal income figures are not adjusted for
inflation.

Transfer receipts, which includes federal stimulus
funds and other federal payments to states, accounted for nearly 40
percent of Hawaii's increase in personal income, the BEA reported.

Federal stimulus funds, the bulk of which were for
government and private sector capital improvement projects, created
2,566 jobs in Hawaii during the first three months of the year,
according to a separate federal report released last month.

For all of 2010, personal income is projected to
grow by 1.9 percent, according to the state Department of Business,
Economic Development & Tourism, up from a 0.4 percent increase in
2009.