September 2010 E-Mail Update

This is my 9/9/10 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.

http://tinyurl.com/2ckfhsg is a link to a lengthy article in the 9/9/10 Honolulu Star Advertiser titled “Oahu home sales starting to pick up” A 9/10/10 daily e-mail update by the Pacific Business News was titled “Honolulu home sales down in August.” The following quote is from the Star Advertiser article: “Rising prices, a shrinking inventory of unsold homes and sellers receiving multiple offers in some areas of the island all point to a recovery in the market this year.” The Board’s statistics for August: Sales of houses 224 compared to 239 last year and 251 two years ago. Sales of condos in August 289 compared to 348 last year and 354 two years ago. So, sales of both houses and condos are down yet using other statistics, a case can be made that the housing market is improving.

Several hotel owners in Waikiki are investigating the feasibility of using cold seawater to air-condition their buildings, a move that could substantially cut electricity costs and help the tourism industry market the famed resort area as a green destination. With 35-45% of a typical hotel electricity bill going to run conventional air systems, using seawater could produce significant electricity cost savings for hoteliers. Cool deep seawater would be pumped through a pipeline to a heat exchange on shore where there is a closed-loop fresh water pipeline system that provides air conditioning service to customer’s buildings. Warmed water is returned through a diffuser at a much shallower depth where the temperature equals the return water temperature. One of the advantages of Waikiki as a location for a seawater air-conditioning system is that due to the concentration of the potential customer base (hotel rooms), it would only take four or five large users of the system to make it economically feasible.

More than 1,200 prison inmates, including 241 of them serving life sentences, defrauded the government of over $9 million in tax credits reserved for first-time buyers according to a recent Treasury Department report. Thousands of people filed multiple claims or made claims outside the allotted time period. In all, more than $28 million was improperly doled out. The program at issue was meant to stimulate the housing market by giving tax credits of $8,000 to qualifying first-time homebuyers. According to the report, 4,608 state and federal inmates filed for these tax credits with fraudulent refunds doled out to 1,295 of them. The most egregious fraudsters were 715 lifetime prisoners, including 174 prison lifers who filed with the help of paid preparers. From this group, 241 lifers were awarded $1.7 million. The report also found that improper filers included 34 employees of the IRS.

The 11-, 12-, and 13-year olds in their sky-blue uniforms from Waipio almost pulled it off, winning five straight elimination games in the Little League World Series at Williamsport, PA. They got off to a rough start losing the opener to Georgia 6 to 2. The following day, they won the first of five elimination games 3 to 1 over New Jersey. Following a couple of days off they entered the fourth inning against Ohio hitless and down 4 to 0 when they scored 6 runs despite having only one hit and won 6 to 4. Then they played Georgia again in the double elimination series and won 7 to 4. The following day they avenged their first game loss by winning the rubber game beating Georgia 12 to 5. After scoring four unlikely elimination wins, Waipio beat Texas 10 to 0 setting up a championship game pitting the U.S. Champion against the Foreign Champion (Japan). Waipio won the Little League Championship in 2008 and almost repeated that victory; however, this time they ended up losing the Little League Championship game to Japan 4 to 1.

In a season-opening college football game last 9/2 that lasted almost four hours, UH still didn’t have enough time to successfully play catch-up to 14th-ranked USC. The final score was 49-36, but easily could have been much closer, as UH won the statistical battle 588 to 524 in total yardage and 31 to 25 in first downs. It was an exciting game in front of a packed stadium including Mary Lou and me. Several controversial calls going against UH resulted in a crescendo boos that might still be reverberating in Halawa Valley. In the 4th quarter following a series of injuries, UH was down to their 3rd-string QB but still putting points up on the board 13 to 7. There were several long runs, long passes and long kick returns by both teams that will create homework by defensive coordinators and special teams coaches.

The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is demanding $5 million exit fees by Oct. 25th from Fresno State and Nevada, which are bolting to the Mountain West Conference. WAC Commissioner Karl Bensen said the league would sue the universities if they don’t pay up. He also said the league won’t let the schools leave until after the 2011-12 academic year. The loss of the two schools along with the loss of powerhouse Boise State will leave the WAC in the future with only six remaining schools: Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Utah State. As UH considers the next step in a swiftly changing football conference landscape, school officials continuing to explore future scheduling options with an eye on possibly becoming an independent in football. Some possible home and away future opponents are BYU, Army, Navy and Notre Dame . . . Colt Brennan, the former record setting QB at UH was placed on the injured reserve by the Washington Redskins last year before the season started. This year, he was cut by the Skins about a month ago and picked up right away by the Oakland Raiders. However, he saw very limited activity and was also cut by Oakland. All he can do now is wait and hope that an injury leads another NFL team to select him to fill a backup role during the upcoming season.

Hawaii ranks last in the nation in the percentage of core classes in high poverty secondary schools taught by highly qualified teachers. The No Child Left Behind law requires that all teachers of core subjects by highly qualified, a designation that means a teacher must have a bachelor’s degree, full state licensure, demonstrate subject matter competency and pass a teaching exam. More than half of Hawaii’s public school teachers leave within five years of being hired, a sobering statistic the state is scrambling to address when experienced teachers are needed by the state to help turn around struggling schools, meet federal requirements for “highly qualified” teachers and meet ambitious school reform goals. At the same time, the state is bracing for a wave of retiring baby boomer teachers and principals.

The state Office of Elections sent absentee ballots to 1,600 absentee voters in Portlock and sections of Hawaii Kai that omitted the entire state Senate District race. The red-faced Office has mailed corrected ballots . . . Concerns are growing over voter turnout, as there are only 242 polling sites state-wide compared to 339 sites for the last election . . . The City Council is considering a measure to prohibit political signs larger than 2 by 4 feet, or 8 square feet from being posted on residential property. Such signs could be erected no more than 120 days before an election or 30 days after it. Efforts to regulate campaign signs in Hawaii have floundered partly because lawmakers have a soft spot for their own signs and partly because of reluctance to infringe on free-speech rights in the political arena. The proposed law will not restrict the number of signs that could be placed on one property . . . The late-August run of silvers near Ketchikan was the poorest Mary Lou and I have seen in some ten years of fishing trips to Alaska. On the flip side, the kings were still running and we were able to catch a king in three out of the four days we fished. We also managed some nice halibut including one at 82 pounds that is the largest halibut I’ve ever caught.

Google flagged Stott Real Estate’s website as hosting and distributing malware in August. A computer hacker exploited a security flaw in WordPress and successfully hacked into servers that host websites worldwide.  Stott Real Estate uses WordPress to update our website and became one of the many websites that were infected.  After a couple of weeks of working with our website developer, we are happy to be able to report that the malicious code has been removed from www.stott.com.  Moreover, steps have been taken to prevent this problem from occurring again.

For property management assistance including fair market rents, contact my son-in-law, Tim Kelley, at tim@stott.com For listing assistance including fair market sales values, contact my daughter at tracey@stott.com Either of them can also be reached be reached locally at 808-254-1515 or via our toll-free 800 number at 1-800-922-6811.