March 2011 E-Mail Update

This is my 3/11/11 e-mail update. I send a monthly e-mail out after the statistical data for the prior month has been posted on the Honolulu Board of Realtor’s website. Our staff automatically adds new e-mail addresses to our database. To be removed, hit reply and send me an e-mail stating that. Please include your first and last name so it’s easier for us to find you in our database.

By the time you receive this, most recipients should be well aware of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast northeastern Japan late yesterday that caused Hawaii to mobilize in preparation for what was thought to be a major tsunami with wave amplitudes 6 feet above normal sea levels. The difference between large waves and a tsunami is the high tsunami waves stay high for 10-15 minutes before they recede. The long length of the tsunami enables the wave to wrap around all the islands, so the impact of being on the eastern side of Oahu is similar to being on western side. Plus, there are multiple tsunami waves. Serious local warnings began about 9:30 p.m. last night with the waves expected to hit the islands about 3:00 a.m. this morning. Mary Lou and I live in a beachfront house on Kailua Beach, which makes us very susceptible to tsunamis. Tim and Tracey also live in Kailua but at a much higher elevation, so we went to their house with our two dogs where we remained until we passed the 3:00 a.m. expected time of the first wave and it became apparent that any damage would be negligible. As someone said this morning, you have snow days on the Mainland while we have tsunamis.

The median sales price for houses on Oahu declined from $575,500 in February 2010 to $570,000 in February 2011. Closed sales increased slightly from 177 to 182. For condos, the median sales price for February jumped from $299,000 to $320,000 with closed sales also increasing from 244 to 295. The year-to-date arithmetical average (January & February) increased from $683,211 to $699,026 for houses and from $349,407 to $356,210 for condos

Hawaii’s economy should grow slightly faster this year than previously expected, however, job recovery won’t be realized until 2014 according to a state economist. Boosted by a strong rebound in visitor spending and construction jobs, the state recently revised their growth projections for overall gross domestic product (GDP) from 1.8% to 2.0% this year. GDP is the total market value of all goods and services produced in a given year. According to the state economist, it will take three years for jobs to return to the 2007 peak

Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill in February making it legal for same-sex and heterosexual couples to enter a civil union. The legislation opens up business and tourism opportunities for the state and affords members of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities the right to mark their unions with a legally binding ceremony. For years, a debate has existed in Hawaii as to whether the state should allow same sex marriages. When it appeared several years ago that Hawaii might be the first state to enact a same-sex wedding law, there was a backlash by various Mainland groups that threatened to cancel conventions scheduled for Hawaii. Today, CT, IA, NH, VT, and Washington, DC allow same-sex weddings, domestic partnerships are offered in CA, NV, OR and WA while civil unions are allowed in IL, NJ and HI.

State lawmakers have advanced a pension tax but have targeted fewer taxpayers than Gov. Abercrombie recommends. Abercrombie’s proposal would tax pensions on single and married taxpayers filing separately with federal adjusted gross income of $37,500, heads of households and surviving spouses who earn $56,250 and couples who make $75,000. The House Finance Committee voted on 3/1/11 to impose the tax on single and married taxpayers filing separately with federal adjusted gross income of $100,000 a year, heads of households and surviving spouse who earn #150,000 and couples who make $200,000. The House bill now goes to the full House for consideration; it would generate $17.2 million a year. Abercrombie’s version would bring in $112 million a year.
86-year-old Senator Daniel Akaka (D) has announced that he will not seek re-election next year after 14 years in the U.S. House and 21 years in the U.S. Senate. Over the past decade, Akaka has been an advocate of native Hawaiian rights. His bill, known as the Akaka Bill in his honor, would treat Hawaiians the same as American Indians and Alaska natives. The bill has passed the House but has repeatedly stalled in the Senate. It is highly unlikely the bill will advance prior to Akaka leaving the Senate. The leading Republican candidate for his seat will be former two-term Governor Linda Lingle. There are a number of Democratic candidates but no consensus leader at this time with the fundraising ability and overall appeal of Lingle. The leading Democratic hopefuls in no order of importance are newly elected Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, U.S. Rep Mazie Hirono, former Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann, and former U.S. Rep Ed Case.

Akaka is the seventh senator (the fifth that caucuses with the Democrats) to announce retirement after 2012 when Senate Democrats already have more Senate seats than Republicans to defend. The open seat in Hawaii will likely be one of several that will likely draw national interest next year. The other senator from Hawaii, Daniel Inouye, also 86-years-old, is at the height of his political power as president pro-tempore (third in line to the Presidency after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House). Inouye is the Chairman of the very important Senate Appropriations Committee. He will likely play a significant role in determining who runs against Lingle

The New York Times asked the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index to come up with a statistical composite for the happiest person in America. The result would be a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $125,000 a year. Finding the person was relatively easy as there are only a handful of Asian-American men who practice Judaism at one of the three Jewish synagogues on Oahu. Alvin Wong (69), a Chinese-American who converted to Judaism, lives in Manoa and meets all the Gallup criteria. He is the founder of two health care management businesses and in the process of starting a non-profit group devoted to sharing resources to cancer patients and their families. His wife, Trudy, sits on the board of the Friends of the East-West Center. They have been hosting East-West Center scholars for years and have been deluged with worldwide e-mails since the article appeared in the New York Times.

Astronomers will be able to peer farther into space and back in time, reaching fairly close to the “big bang” that started the universe, under a plan that would add the 14th and biggest telescope to date atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island. The Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory or TMT as it is called would be among a new class of big telescopes that can see farther than ever into the cosmos. TMT is based in Pasadena, CA and supported by various universities and astronomical organizations in the U.S., Canada Japan, China, and India. TNT states that the planned 184-foot-tall Mauna Kea telescope should be able to get pictures 10 times clearer than the Hubble Space Telescope and be able to see 23 billion light-years in the past to within about 400 million years after the big bang. Construction could start as early as 2012, take eight years and employ 300 local construction workers and about 140 full-time operators, most working at the TMT headquarters in Hilo. The 30-meter mirror would provide nine times the image collecting area of the twin ten-meter Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea.

Groundbreaking of the Honolulu rail transit system occurred on February 22nd. So far, the city has federal authorization to begin relocating utilities and negotiating land acquisition along the rail route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center. Opponents remain active and picketed the groundbreaking ceremony as well as presenting a lawsuit the following day to declare the environmental statement to be unacceptable, as the city did not conduct an inventory survey of archaeological sites, including ancient Hawaiian burials, along the project’s route.

The state now has a 40-second greeting in Hawaiian at Honolulu International Airport that is repeated every 30 minutes. Translated, the message means, “Welcome to the Honolulu International Airport. If you’re headed out, be safe and come back soon. Kamaaina . . . welcome home.  And, if you’ve just arrived . . . we hope that you enjoy your stay in our islands.”