A great comparison study done by Trulia shows the financial benefits of buying vs. renting in various cities around America. While New York and LA are places that one should rent, Honolulu falls nicely into the "BUY" section.

Why?  Simple - because rents are so high here.  Trulia explains their …

As we had predicted a couple months ago, the Oahu housing market finished the year very strong. In December, there were 306 Single family sales, which was up 12.5% from last year.  For the year, there were 3051 sales, compared to only 2690 sales in 2009.

Condo sales did well …

CNBC gave Honolulu some nice publicity:

"While Hawaii in general has a unique air concern known as VOG (volcanic smog) that can affect health, Honolulu regularly makes lists of greenest and cleanest cities, and Sustain Lane ranked it the best city for air quality."

Actually what they don't realize …

When meeting with a real estate agent to search through your new home options, it is easy to get a bit confused by the terms that are used by real estate agents. While agents are not trying to confuse their clients, the reality is that certain terms are so common …

 Lost and Hawaii 5-0 star Daniel Dae Kim is selling his house for $2,430,000.  Located in beautiful Kahala on the East side of Oahu, the home has 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a large pool. It's a vintage Hawaii home in Oahu's most expensive neighborhood.  Best of all, it's …

Just got this email from a lender:

The maximum loan amount was just updated to the VA Matrix for 2011 which includes a
loan increase for Honolulu
county of $741,250!  Other highlights include:

·       
620 FICO up to $700K no reserves

·       
Max loan amount of $1,500,000

· …

 It's 80 degrees, breezy, and the water is about 75 degrees.  Just another "winter" day on Oahu.  How is the weather where you are?  And WHY don't you live in Hawaii yet?

Here is the view out to the ocean over my neighborhood.  My house hidden in the trees.

I went through some of the Census data and tried to glean anything interesting for real estate purposes. 

Here are some highlights:

148,764 more people live in Hawaii today compared to 10 years ago.  Our State population now totals 1,360,301, up 12.3 percent from the 1,211,537 people who lived here …

This year's Hawaii Kai Christmas Boat Parade was the best one yet.   The Hawaii Kai Marina Community Association held  the parade Saturday, and it was a great event for the whole family.  I took my family of 5 and found a nice secret spot along with about 50 other people. …

Did you ever think of your house as a financial safety net? 

I read a post this morning on Gigi Hawaii's blog, in which she explained that owning a home is about to save her life, so to speak. 

She writes, "We plan to apply for a reverse mortgage …