June 2011 E-Mail Update

This is my 6/07/11 E-Mail Update. I send an Update out each month after the statistics for the preceding month have been posted on the Honolulu Board of Realtor’s website. If you want to be taken off the distribution list for our monthly E-Mail Update, hit reply and send me an e-mail stating that. Please include your first and last name to make it easier to identify you.

Statistics: In parenthesis are figures for the same period a year ago. May sales of houses 243 (330); May sales of condos 330 (368). Median (midway) sales price for houses $595,000 ($600,000); median sales price for condos $290,000 ($305,000). Year-to-date (Jan through May) sales of houses 1,111 (1,183); year-to-date sales of condos 1,646 (1,620). Median sales price for houses $572,500 ($585,000) and for condos $305,000 ($305,000)

The Oahu Housing Market is doing reasonably well compared to many areas on the Mainland. Prices fell from February to March in 18 of the 20 metro areas tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index. The nationwide index fell for the eighth straight month with the following 12 cities at their lowest level in nearly four years: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, and Tampa. Honolulu is not included in the study.

Hawaii passed a bill in May (Act 48) that advocates say is one of the strongest foreclosure mediation laws in the nation. The new law applies to owner-occupants of residential property where the owner-occupants have resided in the home for a minimum of 200 consecutive days The law prohibits lenders from holding non-judicial foreclosure auctions until the borrowers have had an opportunity to participate in a dispute resolution program that will be overseen by a trained mediator. The dispute resolution program is slated to begin operating by October 1, 2011, so in effect, both new and existing foreclosure cases are on hold for several months.. Participation is optional and is not expected to be too useful for people who can’t pay a reasonably restructured mortgage.

Most large Mainland banks use non-judicial foreclosures that are done outside of court as contrasted to judicial foreclosures where the foreclosure is overseen by a judge. Hawaii’s new law allows a borrower to convert a non-judicial foreclosure to a judicial foreclosure overseen by a Circuit Court judge; however, this option is not available if the borrower chooses dispute resolution. Also, a deficiency judgment may exist with a judicial foreclosure that is prohibited by the new law with a non-judicial foreclosure. So, even though a judicial foreclosure is much more expensive and takes a much longer period of time, lenders may opt to use a judicial foreclosure in lieu of a non-judicial foreclosure if they believe they will be able collect funds from the borrower.

Democrats have a 43-8 majority in the state House and a 24-1 majority in the state Senate, yet Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie was unable to get his way with his tax proposals, in particular the tax on pension income which was Abercrombie’s primary source of new revenue to help close the projected two-year $1.3 billion budget deficit. Not only did lawmakers refuse to pass a pension tax, even one directed just at higher income retirees, but they also rejected the governor’s call for a soda tax, an increase in the liquor tax, a higher tax on timeshares and the elimination of state Medicare Part B reimbursements for retired public workers and their spouses. A number of bills passed including two that could create future problems. One bill diverted money from the hurricane relief fund to the state’s general fund. The hurricane relief fund is designed to enable homeowners to be able to obtain hurricane insurance after a hurricane hits. The other bill uses money from the state’ rainy day fund to help pay for state welfare programs.

UH has signed a point guard who was selected as the New York City Player of the Year by the “New York Daily News.” Shaquille Stokes, named after Shaquille O’Neal, is a 5-fot-ten, 160-pound senior point guard who averaged 18.4 points, five rebounds and four assists in leading Lincoln High in Brooklyn to the championship game and earning league MVP honors. More than any other position, UH needed another point guard, so Shaquille may be able to start right away next year. He is relatively small; however he was pursued by a number of big-name schools but decided on Hawaii despite the fact that it rained almost constantly during his May recruiting visit.

A County Commissioner from Washington state and the wife of a Navy P-3 pilot has put out information stating that the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaii (Kaneohe Bay) is too short for a fully loaded Navy P-8A Poseidon jet to take off under extreme operational conditions. Hawaii is supposed to get 18 of the aircraft starting in 2015 as replacements for the propeller driven P-3C aircraft. The potential runway problem made front-page news in mid-May. The new P-8A are scheduled to be based at Whidbey Island in Washington State, at Jacksonville, Florida and at Kaneohe; however, Whidbey Island may be phased our in a cost-saving move. The Navy’s immediate response was that extreme operational conditions seldom, if ever, exist in Hawaii and that if it did exist, fueling could be done at either Hickam or in the air. It will be interesting if this one has any legs as a story that could possibly impact upon future bases or is merely a Washington State politician trying to save jobs.

“Hawaii Five-O” the Hawaii based crime show has been renewed by CBS for a second season Plans are to continue the show on Monday nights following the sitcoms  “Two and a Half Men” and “Mike and Molly.” When CBS aired first-run episodes of “Hawaii Five-O,” CBS won it’s hour 13 times. ABC’s “Off the Map” the only other network show to be shot in Hawaii this past year was cancelled. However, a new ABC show, “The River” which shot it’s pilot in Puerto Rico is moving to Hawaii. “The River” follows the story of a wildlife expert who goes missing deep in the Amazon while on a journey with his wife and son. His family, friends and crew set out on a mysterious journey to find him.

Canadians have overtaken the Japanese as the top international buyers of residential real estate in Hawaii as a result of sales on Maui. On Oahu, sales to Japanese buyers continue to lead all other countries. As for the next big international market, most point to China; however, last year there were only 11 sales to Chinese buyers in Hawaii.

The U.S. Army is planning a major overhaul of Wheeler Army Airfield’s 25th Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade facilities. The project involves the replacement or renovation of nearly every aviation facility on base and will be done over a five-year period. The Combat Aviation Brigade consists of 2,400 troops, 92 helicopters and 280 land vehicles that are housed at aging facilities at Wheeler as well as neighboring Schofield Barracks.

The Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu’s North Shore is embarking on a $38 million redevelopment that includes building a restaurant and dining hall, adding facilities for various activities and shows and redesigning its retail complex. The Cultural Center had 692,000 visitors in 2010 with $358 million in revenue.

Hawaii’s homeless population grew 6% from 2010 to 2011 with 80% or about 4,200 of the homeless living on Oahu. There has been a shift of the homeless from the Waianae Coast to downtown Honolulu. In 2010, the Waianae Coast had the highest concentration of homeless at 30% with Honolulu a close second at 29%. At he recent survey in January, Honolulu was at 34% while the Waianae Coast had declined to 22%.

It’s not unusual for properties that have been foreclosed upon to be in very poor condition. Making the rounds recently are e-mail pictures of a foreclosed property in New Jersey with the following captions for the pictures: We are not showing you this home because of the dilapidated exterior . . . or because of the filthy kitchen with no gas or running water . . . or because the back of the kitchen is disintegrated . . . We are showing you this home because the toilets are disconnected, and . . . the residents chose to transport their waste to the back yard and bury it (large mounds in the back yard).