Kona Kohala Blog

20 days to go until Christmas day and the rush to shop is on.  According to those who track such things, Black Friday was acceptable but fewer companies got into the black that day than was expected.  On line shopping, however, was up more than expected with many shoppers choosing to stay at home and spend money on line.  Good news for the credit card companies any way you look at it.

Real estate market activity continues to improve.  It's all the low end properties that are selling but we're seeing people in a hurry to buy, even showing that "I don't want to be left out" thought.  Over all the inventory of homes and condos in North Kona and South Kohala is increasing but good less expensive homes are moving off the shelves quickly.

The cost of homes and condos continues to decline at about the same 20% per year rate we've been seeing for a while.  The moving force remains foreclosures and short sales which are keeping prices down.  We expect a new batch of properties to come on the market in the next few weeks with the trend continuing into the first quarter next year.  These are the people who live and work here who are in trouble and unable to make payments.

West Hawaii remains a desirable locale to own property.  Investors are here as they pretty much always are but we're seeing more soon to be retirees showing up to stake their claim on a home for their future.  Since the First Time Home Buyer Refundable Tax Credit has been extended that group is still in the hunt along with those who have owned for 5 years but want to take advantage of the new $6,500 credit offered by the feds.

My guess is that these two credits will be the end of it.  There's increasing clamor to get the budget back in control.  So far, in less than a year, Obama has increased the national debt by well over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS with little to show for it.  Business is going great guns with little help from the government; the bad news is that they're doing all this without hiring.  Unemployment could stay over 10% for much longer than is now being predicted unless the feds enable small business expansion with some tax cuts, something more liberals don't understand works in times like these.

There's always hope and it is the Christmas season.  The government wiseing up could be the greatest miracle of all, let us pray.