March 2010 E-mail Update

This is my 3/03/10 E-Mail Update. I send a monthly e-mail update shortly after statistical data for the preceding month has been placed on the Honolulu Board of Realtor’s website. My staff routinely adds most new e-mail addresses we receive to the distribution list. To be removed, select reply and send me an e-mail stating that. Please include your first and last name, so it is easier to find you in our database.

It appears as though we may be turning the corner on sales; however, we need a few more months of data. Comparing the first two months of 2010 to the same period in 2009, sales of houses were up 29.1% (324 compared to 251) while sales of condos were up 47.6% (471 compared to 319). Total sales were up 39.5% (795 compared to 570). Median sales prices over the two-month period went from $550,000 in 2009 to $590,000 in 2010 (up 7.3%) while condos went from $330,000 to 288,000 (down 9.7%). If I used the arithmetical average (mean) in lieu of the median, both sales prices increased, houses by 3.2% while condos were up 0.6%. Here is a link to an applicable front-page headline story in the March 3rd issue of The Honolulu Advertiser.

Hawaii made national news a few days ago with a tsunami warning created by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile about 8:30 pm Hawaii time on Friday. Shortly after midnight, a tsunami warning was issued for Hawaii. The “coconut wireless” became activated with calls from the Mainland being made to family/friends living in Hawaii. I received my first Mainland call at 3:00 a.m. The Honolulu phone book has ten pages of maps that show tsunami evacuation areas for Oahu. We live on the beach, so Mary Lou and I made arrangements to go to Tim and Tracey’s house with our two dogs and two birds. Their house is also in Kailua but at a higher elevation than ours plus it borders Mid Pacific Golf Course. By 3:45 a.m. a large 24-hour Safeway in Kailua began running out of supplies like bottled water, size D flashlight batteries, etc. People were waiting in line at the grocery store for shopping carts. People were also waiting in line at various gas stations. By about 6:00 a.m., gas stations began running out of gasoline. Sirens were frequently sounded along with trucks driving along shoreline streets playing messages for occupants to evacuate. Various estimates were made as to the expected wave height ranging from about 8 ft. in Hilo to about 3 ft. for Oahu. With a tsunami, there are a series of waves over a several hour period. The later waves often create more damage than the initial wave. At about 11:45 a.m. waves at Kahului rose 3.2 ft., which turned out to be the highest wave activity for Hawaii. Frontpage headlines in both the Advertiser and Star Bulletin on Sunday consisted of only one word: “Exhale” and “Whew!” Kudos to police in Kailua who did a good job of blocking beach traffic until it was clear that there were no significant waves.

Two recent local deaths are noteworthy. Honolulu’s six-time mayor, Frank Fasi (1920-2010), passed away in early February. Fasi served as mayor of Honolulu for 22 years. He started out as a Democrat and along the way formed his own Independent Democratic Party, then became a Republican, then formed his own independent Best Party ticket, then became a Republican again. The former Marine officer dominated city politics from 1968 to 1996. He was much less successful statewide where he lost gubernatorial races five times. In the statewide races, Fasi did well on Oahu but couldn’t offset losses on the neighbor islands. Politics were always a spectacle for Fasi. “Hizzoner” was truly one of a kind, usually casting himself as a sole force battling the establishment on behalf of the everyday person. Even when opponents disagreed with him, they usually had to admit that he had a special panache. “Da Mayah” was a visionary and got things done his way despite his critics. From current mayor Mufi Hannemann . . . “When you look around city hall or the city of Honolulu, everything good about our city Frank Fasi had a hand in it.”

Mosi Tatupu (1955 – 2010) passed away in late February at age 54. Tatupu was the first Samoan to achieve widespread recognition in the NFL. Born in American Samoa, Tatupu moved to Hawaii where he became a record-setting running back at Punahou, setting a Hawaii high school rushing record. He then went on to a standout career at USC that included playing in two Rose Bowls and being a member of USC’s 1974 national championship team. Tatupu was drafted by the New England Patriots in the NFL where he played for 15 years including the 1986 Super Bowl. Tatupu was a marvelous special teams player a position that enabled him to be selected for the Pro Bowl as well as being able to extend his NFL career by several years. At one stage in his NFL career, Tatupu played in 169 consecutive NFL games.

The owner of the Honolulu Star Bulletin has agreed to purchase The Honolulu Advertiser in a deal that will likely leave Honolulu with only one daily newspaper. The acquisition is scheduled to be completed over the next six the eight weeks. The Star Bulletin will be offered for sale separately but is unlikely to be sold given the state of the economy and the newspaper business in general with its competition from the Internet. Honolulu is one the nation’s last cities with two daily newspapers. If the Star-Bulletin is not sold by the completion of the sale of the Advertiser, the Star-Bulletin will be shut down. The Advertiser is profitable with a weekday circulation of about 130,000. The Star Bulletin is not profitable and has a weekday circulation of about 69,000. The Advertiser has a very modern printing facility in Kapolei that is part of the sale. So, the smaller, non-profitable paper is buying the larger, profitable paper with its modern printing facility.
Much of the information in my e-mail updates and newsletters comes from our two daily newspapers. National stories in both papers are from the Associated Press and are often identical. Editorials and local stories including coverage of local sports are different. The two papers will often disagree in their editorials. I never cease being surprised at the stories the two papers cover. Frequently, only one newspaper will elect to cover minor stories such as the article later in this e-mail that is based upon research of beach weddings by Knot, Inc. However, occasionally it will be a large story that one paper will cover and the other will omit. There have been times that a story is ignored by one papers and given headline coverage in the other. There seems to be no consistency as to which paper provides the coverage.

Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin on ABC’s “Lost” was the first actor cast for the remake of “Hawaii Five-O.” Kim will play police detective Chin Ho Kelly in the remake. Australian actor and “Moonlight” star Alex O’Loughlin has been selected to play Steve McGarrett, Jack Lord’s role in the original series. CBS is preparing to shoot a pilot for the cop series with filming to begin in mid-March . . . It appeared that some form of gambling might be passed this year with the massive budget deficit. Lawmakers introduced over a dozen bills to legalize gambling. However, opposition from law enforcement, business leaders, social service providers and religious leaders made it difficult for any of the bills to be passed. Hawaii remains one of only two states (Utah is the other) that prohibits gambling . . . Some Hawaii residents may not see their state income tax refund checks until the end of August even though they filed their returns on time. Delaying the refund checks is allowed by state law and is being used to ease the shortfall in the fiscal year that ends June 30th. Delaying the refunds will push the costs into the next fiscal year. Several states, including California, Missouri and Kansas, used this technique last year.

Patti’s Chinese Kitchen closed its last fast food restaurant in Hawaii at the Pearl Ridge Center’s Uptown food court the end of February. Patti’s closed its space in the Ala Moana Center food court in January 2008 after 40 years of being in the Shopping Center. At one time, Patti’s also had restaurants at both Kahala Mall and the Windward Mall . . . Hawaii is No. 1 in the nation for casual beach weddings according to Knot, Inc., a wedding and marriage-lifestyle-centric media company based in New York. Half of the wedding ceremonies in Hawaii take place on a beach compared to 7% on the Mainland while 38% of the wedding receptions in Hawaii are on a beach compared to 4% on the Mainland . . . For the second time in six years UH will open its football season on national TV and once again the opponent will be Southern California. The Warriors September 2 opener against the USC Trojans will be on a Thursday with kickoff at Aloha Stadium at 5:00 pm. The game will be televised by ESPN . . . Recently, Forbes Magazine bestowed a major honor on the Bank of Hawaii. After reviewing the financial performance of America’s top 100 banks, Forbes named Bank of Hawaii “America’s Best Bank.” Bank of Hawaii has 2,500 employees and over 500,000 customers including Stott Real Estate, Inc. since we were incorporated in 1978.

Hawaii Congressman Neil Abercrombie filed nomination papers on March 1st to run in the Democratic primary for governor after resigning from the U.S. House of Representatives. That leaves Hawaii with only one member in the House. A special election to fill Abercrombie’s Congressional seat will be held in May. Abercrombie who spent two decades in Washington is expected to face Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in the Democratic primary for governor though Hannemann has not officially announced his campaign. Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona,  a  Republican, has also declared his intention to run for the top job. As for Abercrombie’s House Seat, the winner take all contest has attracted two well known Democrats, former Congressman Ed Case and current state Senate President Colleen Hanabus as well as one prominent Republican, Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou. A primary and general election for the seat will be held in the fall.