This very large, beautiful house was just listed today. With 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and nearly 4000 sqft under roof, it would be best used as a multigenerational home. There is a new full kitchen along with 2 wetbars, all with very nice counters and cabinets. 

The owner just put in new bamboo floors, granite counters, and fresh paint.  The large family room has room for everyone, and the extra large 2 car garage has plenty of room for their toys.  

MLS 1107732 , $1.777 million fee simple.  We will be having our first open this Sunday 2-5pm.  

More pictures can be seen HERE

Manoa is located in the heart of Honolulu, centered around the University of Hawaii.  Just minutes from Downtown Honolulu, and only 20 minutes from Honolulu Airport, Manoa is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Hawaii.   The frequent rain keeps everything lush and green. This large, remodeled house is ready to be moved into!

After nearly 5 months on the market, we have lowered the price of this beautiful little Hawaii Kai home to $750,000. At just over 1400sqft, it's not large, but it sits on half an acre of land, and has been beautifully remodeled with travertine tile, silestone counters, and this brand new decking in the back. 

We started out at $846,000, and had plenty of interest, and at one point were in escrow when the price was $799k.  That buyer canceled due to personal issues. 

Now this is an opportunity to get a house in Hawaii Kai for a great price.  For $750,000, most houses in Hawaii Kai are totally junk. Usually they need a renovation just to move in, but this house is in great shape and newly remodeled.  

I'm certain it will be sold this week, after many showings this past weekend. 

Check out this picture taken from the living room, through the kitchen and into the family room.  This house has it all and it priced WAY TOO LOW!   I can't believe it hasn't sold yet ! 

How did your money do over the last 5 and 10 years?  Was housing a terrible investment?  Which did better, stocks or real estate? 

Well look back to 5 years go and say you had chosen to invest in stocks.  If you had $50,000 in (June 2006,) and you had invested in the Dow, you would currently have about $54,870, an increase of 9.7%. 

If you had invested that same $50k 10 years ago in the same Dow stocks, you would have about $54,445, an 8.9% increase.  Basically, any money that you had in the stock market over the last 5 years or 10 years is worth less when you include inflation.  By the way, I have been calling high inflation for about 2 years now, just following most economists.

Now let's say you had invested in Oahu real estate. 

In June 2001, the median price of Oahu homes was about $300,000.   If you had used that $50k as a down payment on real estate, the value of your house would have gained approximately $300,000, and you would have paid your mortgage down to about $206,000 over those 10 years.   

Fast forward to May of this year, and the median sale price on Oahu in May was $595,000.   Your $50k down payment is now worth about $400,000. 

Now what about the last 5 years?  Didn't the real estate market collapse?  Not so fast...

The median price of Oahu real estate 5 years ago was $600,000, almost exactly the same as it is now.   And your $550,000 loan would have a current balance of $507,500.  So guess what? 

Your $50,000 is now worth about $92,500.  Plus, you received tax write offs on the interest payments that whole time.  Had you invested that $50k and rented a house for the last 5 years, you would have... nothing. 

 Going forward - with rising inflation, a questionable economy, and faltering stocks, if you buy a house, you have something.  You have a house. 

With stocks, 10 years may go by and you may not have anything more than what you invested, and you might even have less. 

It's not an all time low, but it's close to a 5 year low.  Right now there are 83 homes for sale in all of Hawaii Kai at any price, most of them well over $1 million. 

In Ewa Beach and Kapolei combined, there are only 137 homes for sale.  That is extremely low.  In all of Kailua, there are 113 homes for sale, most of them well over $1 million. 

For the past 4 years, inventory has been on a steady decline, while sales have increased a bit.  Actually they were up 30% in 2010.  

Why?  Maybe everyone has such a low interest rate that they don't want to sell. Maybe people believe prices will increase if they hold for a while.  Maybe nobody wants to leave Hawaii.  

Whatever the reason, there are very few homes for sale, especially under $800,000.  In Hawaii Kai, there are 16 homes under that price.  

This isn't so much an interpretation as an observation.  The low supply of homes has kept prices stable in Hawaii, while other States are seeing huge numbers of foreclosures, high inventories, and quickly declinine prices.  

For the past 2 years, Freddie Mac's Super Conforming Mortgages and Fannie Mae's Temporary High-Balance Conforming loans provided higher maximum loan limits for high cost areas of the country ($793,750 in Honolulu County, versus the conforming maximum loan amount of $625,500). This was a temporary higher loan limit that is set to expire soon on September 30, 2011.

Right now, an Owner Occupant Rate on these "super conforming" loans are approximately 4.625%, 1.625 points according to Honolulu Home Loans, from whom I got an email this morning on this very topic.

It's unlikely that Congress would extend the temporary higher loan limits, so the impact on the real estate market in Hawaii could be substantial. However, in the past 2 years I've only seen 2 or 3 of those high balance loans, while most people seem to top out at $625k anyway, with cash for the rest.

Having worked in both the CA and Hawaii real estate markets, one thing that really stands out is that people in Hawaii are far more conservative, and often have very large down payments. In fact I think most people don't even consider the high balance loans, because they haven't even heard of them.

I don't think the government should extend higher loan limits, and actually it would probably be better if they got out of the finance business entirely. Fannie and Freddie caused the housing bubble via the "Community Reinvestment Act," as they forced lenders to give loans to people with poor credit and low income. Bad idea from the start.

Would you like 50 people through your first open house?  

Would you like multiple offers over asking price in the first week of your listing?

Would you like to get the market price of your home now, or wait 90 days to get a low ball offer? 

This week I listed this beautiful 2 year old house for $639k, while the comparable sales said we could probably list it $20k-$40k higher.  Had we done that, we would have probably taken 3-6 months to sell, and would have ended up at around a $650k sale price.

As a result of our 'too low' listing, we had over 60 people through the open house, and are now working with buyers on offers that are over asking price. We will certainly get this home in escrow by this weekend.  

The banks have known for a long time that listing a house 'too low' just results in people bidding up to about the market price.  That's why they always list their foreclosures way below the market price of a regular "fixer."

The problem is that sellers are fearful of under selling their home.  But in this market, buyers want to a deal, a good price, a fair price.  They would rather pick up a quick deal than low ball an old listing. The result is that you end up around the same price, but it sells faster.  

But here is the part sellers forget - if your house sits on the market 6 months, you've just made 6 more payments that you might have avoided if you had sold it quickly.  In the end, any difference in price (if there is one) is offset by the time you save and the payments you don't make.  

Bottom line - you almost CAN'T price a house too low.  The lower it is, the faster it sells, the more offers you get, the higher it gets bid up.  

This house will be open again Sunday, 2-5pm.  By then, we will probably be in escrow well over asking price.  It's been on the market for 3 days. 

The average rate for a 30-year home loan rose above 5 percent this week for the first time since last April — just as Americans are feeling more secure in their jobs and confident about the economy, and just before the big spring home-buying rush.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate was 5.05 percent, almost a full percentage point higher than in November, when it hit a 40-year low.

Economic signals suggest the recovery is gaining momentum. New claims for jobless benefits came in this week at the lowest in three years, and the unemployment rate has fallen nearly a full percentage point in two months. Americans are spending more and saving less.

The exception is the beleaguered housing market. Record foreclosures have forced home prices down, and last year was the worst for sales in more than a decade. About the only good news was that qualified buyers could get the deal of a lifetime from their lenders, if they had the means — and the stomach — for the market.

Now rates are rising, and analysts expect that will continue through the end of the year, to about 5.5 percent. The next few months are the busiest for the housing market — about one in three home sales happens in the spring.

Rates have been rising since the fall, mostly because of fears that higher inflation is coming. Investors have been demanding higher yields on Treasury bonds ever since the Federal Reserve announced its program to pump up the economy by spending $600 billion to buy government debt. Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note.

Mortgage rates are still extremely low by historical standards. Anyone who bought a house 30 years ago might remember paying 18 percent on their loan.

And many analysts say low lending rates are less likely to persuade people to buy than, say, reasonable home prices or a steady job market.

Home prices are expected to fall at least 5 percent more this year. Because of the feeling that the home isn't the failsafe investment it used to be, renting is more attractive. Especially when some analysts say it could be years before prices return to their pre-recession peak.

That may be contributing to the fact that, despite record inventory levels of affordable homes in nearly half of U.S. cities, mortgage applications continue their downward slide as buyers remain on the sidelines.

On a $200,000 loan, the payment difference between today's rate and November's is less than $100 a month — hardly enough by itself to spook a buyer.

If rates continue to rise, as many predict they will, the housing market will be in for yet more trouble. "Six percent would do serious damage if it happened in a very short period of time," said Patrick Newport, U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

Even 6 percent would be a bargain for homebuyers historically. Rates were in double digits through most of the 1980s. It wasn't until 1991 that rates consistently stayed below 10 percent. At the peak of the credit bubble in July 2006, the 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.76 percent.

"We're turning to a more normal mortgage rate environment, says Guy Cecala, publisher of the trade magazine Inside Mortgage Finance. "That pretty much means the 30-year in the 6 percent range. I don't think rates will be going down."

Built in 2008, this beautiful house has a huge landscaped lot, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and an upstairs family room. It is prices well below the market at $639k and we expect a TON of showings and offers next week, after the first open house, which is Sunday. 

There is nothing else in Makakilo priced under $700k that has more than 2000sqft. 

Click this link to see 37 great pictures!

 I was honored this week to be named in the Top 100 Realtors in Hawaii (out of about 4000 agents) and will be featured in Hawaii Business Magazine's June Issue.  I was #45.

Along with this honor came a promotion to Vice President of Realty Executives Oahu, which is mostly a title only along with some benefits, and I'm very grateful for this as well. 

I give all the glory to my God and Father in Heaven for his grace and blessings on me.  Thank you Lord.  

Deuteronmy 8:18 says,  'You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.'

As a farmer prays for rain, I pray for my business and give him thanks for the gracious 'rain' in my life.