RECENT BLOG POSTS
According to report commissioned by First Hawaiian Bank, Hawaii's tourism is in crisis mode. As a small example, last night I met some friends from California at a wonderful chinese restaurant, the Hong Kong Cafe, and we were the only people in the restaurant for about two hours. The downturn eff...
04/02/2009
Spring is here and our market is definitely picking up. Hooray. There were 49 transactions that either went into escrow or went into escrow and sold in the month of March. That's a pickup in activity for kauai real estate. That is far more volume than we've seen in January or February. Buyers are...
04/01/2009
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the 1993 Apology Resolution did not strip the state of its authority to sell or transfer 1.2 million acres of ceded lands. The court’s unanimous decision overturns a previous ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court that blocked the sale of land conveyed to Haw...
04/01/2009
Reuters reported today that according to the National Association of Realtors, Sales of vacation and investment homes in the United States slipped to 30% of all transactions of existing and new homes in 2008, the  said on Monday. However, more than four out of 10 investment buyers and more than t...
03/30/2009
The Garden Island today reported that The Hawai‘i Senate rejected an attempt to pull a stalled bill proposing to grant the rights of marriage to members of same-sex civil unions from its deadlocked committee Wednesday in Honolulu, effectively ending the discussion for at least this year and preve...
03/26/2009
Did you happen to catch the article on cnn.money.com yesterday about our housing market? The article shares some insights that show we may be getting close or at the bottom and that's a bit of optimism for our industry. It appears to me that most of the markets that are picking up in sales have l...
03/26/2009
Well, March is looking to be the best month yet this year as there are more buyers and more deals on the island of Kauai. Kauai REO foreclosures continue to grow and these seem to be becoming the best values in our market. With one week left in the month of March, 42 properties are in either cont...
03/25/2009
Kukui'ula, which covers 1,010 acres between Po'ipu and Lawa'i Valley on Kaua'i's southern shore, is a luxury community planned for 1,200 homes, an 18-hole golf course, a resort spa, 75,000-square-foot commercial village and a 31-unit boutique hotel. Described as "Kaua'i's Living Garden," the plan...
03/19/2009
The Hawaii state Supreme Court on Monday rejected a state law that allowed the Hawaii Superferry to operate while an environmental study is being conducted.Ruling the law was unconstitutional, the court sent the case back to Circuit Court, leaving the fate of the Superferry’s service between Hono...
03/16/2009
I saw Mayor Carvalho yesterday at a church in Lihue. The church was having a celebration for installing a new pastor. There was a great potluck and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I played in a jazz quartet that added a nice ambience to the event. Today the mayor presented his state of the c...
03/16/2009