New benefits for members of the military and certain other federal employees:

    * Members of the military and certain other federal employees serving outside the U.S. have an extra year to buy a principal residence in the U.S. and qualify for the home buyer credit.
    * Thus, an eligible taxpayer must buy, or enter into a binding contract to buy, a principal residence on or before April 30, 2011. If a binding contract is entered into by that date, the taxpayer has until June 30, 2011, to close on the purchase.
    * Members of the uniformed services, members of the Foreign Service and employees of the intelligence community are eligible for this special rule. It applies to any individual (and, if married, the individual's spouse) who serves on qualified official extended duty service outside of the United States for at least 90 days during the period beginning after Dec. 31, 2008, and ending before May 1, 2010.

 Are you looking for a unit in Nanea Kai?  It's been several months since a 3 bedroom unit has been for sale there.  I know of one  about to
come on the market Thursday.  A friend of mine is the listing agent, and nobody else knows about it. 

It is a
corner unit about three buildings from the post office. 
The seller says it is in excellent condition.  Square Feet is about
1,582, with 1-car garage plus the lanai.  Listed for $595,000.  

Interested?  Let me know fast! It's going to have multiple offers, guaranteed!

PBN reported today that Visitor spending in Hawaii increased 12.7 percent year over year to $874.2 million in March, thanks to across the board gains in visitors from Hawaii's major markets.

Air arrivals were 596,969 in March and cruise ships brought in 10,740 visitors.  Maui led the growth in visitor spending with a 25.2 percent increase to $257.7 million thanks, to a 14.2 percent increase in arrivals.

HTA said the strong gains on Maui were a result of new air services added in March from Edmonton, Calgary, Orange County, Los Angeles, San Jose and Sacramento, along with other new routes to Maui that began in late 2009.

More good news for tourism officials: Hawaii saw increases in arrivals from Korea and China, two markets that the state is counting on for future growth.

Year-over-year results from the top visitor markets for March:

• 9.2 percent gain in arrivals by air (230,065 visitors) from the U.S. West;
• 7.9 percent gain in arrivals by air (148,774 visitors) from the U.S. East;
• 6.5 percent gain in arrivals (109,339 visitors) from Japan;
• 17.3 percent gain in arrivals (50,745 visitors) from Canada.

I recently referred a client to a loan officer, and before he would call the guy he said, "Is this guy with a reputable company that is with and not some fly by night place?"

My response: "Reputable?  You mean like Countrywide?  Lehman Brothers?  Or maybe AIG?" 

We both had a laugh and of course he realized that no matter how big or reputable a company may seem to be, there is no way to know if the company will be around very long.  But one thing I have noticed is that the good loan officers who have done a good job for the last 10 years are still around. They may have gone from one big bank to another, to a small broker, to a consolidated lender - but they are still there.  The bad ones are now waiting tables. 

I know one lender who went from Finance Factors to First Horizon home loans to Met life bank to American Savings Bank.  And she is still doing a great job and hasn't dropped the ball once.  Another loan officer I use has gone from Countrywide to Bank of Hawaii to Wells to Honolulu Home loans.  And he is still the same reliable guy. 

The lesson here - you can usually trust your loan officer even if his or her company fails.  It's not the company you're most concerned about, it's the actual loan officer.  the LO is the one who mostly determines your fate.  The rate, points, terms, etc., are mostly determined by what the LO can do with your information. You can almost always trust a good loan officer no matter where he goes. 

The opposite is also true - if you get a bad loan officer (there are many!) then it doesn't matter how good the company is and how long they are around.  A shark is a shark in any waters.

Lesson for my clients - don't just call some huge company or credit union and expect to get a good deal.  Find a good loan officer and stick with them.  

The beautiful condo I posted yesterday for $650k has already sold at full price, in less than 24 hours.  That's just the market right now.  The condo was listed at about noon yesterday, and by 11pm I had received an offer, several phone calls, and tons of other interest.

In this case, the buyer was very wise - he acted quickly, didn't low ball, and presented a very clean offer.  I can guarantee that if all those things didn't come together, he would have been waiting around all weekend to see if we got other offers, which I'm sure would have been the case. 

My sellers also acted wisely - didn't price too high, didn't wait around to see if other offers came in, and didn't counter offer.  Sometimes sellers want to counter even higher than their asking, which just makes a buyer mad. I've had good offers fall apart because sellers got greedy. 

In this case - both parties were very smart, not greedy, and everyone ends up happy : )

The Advertiser reported today on the housing stats that were released by the Board of Realtors this week.

"O'ahu's housing market appears to have established a firm footing toward recovery, with sales activity in March marking the third consecutive month that single-family home median prices rose over the same month last year."

"However, some observers wonder whether the improvements will continue after federal tax credits for home purchases expire at the end of this month, which is keeping some leaders of the industry from proclaiming that the market is rid of weakness in home prices."

The median price of single-family homes rose 4.2 percent to $599,000 from $575,000 a year ago. 
The number of homes sold was up 32.1 percent to 251 in March from 190 a year earlier.

 Just listed this morning, an 11th floor ocean view condo in Makiki.  The best thing about Makiki of course is location, and as the best high rise in the area, Mott-Smith stands out among most in Honolulu.  The unit comes with assigned parking for 4 cars (or 5 small ones). There is a beautiful pool, hot tub, tennis courts, meeting room, and bbq areas. 

This great 3bedroom 2bath condo with 1167sqft + almost 200sqft of lanai will sell quickly!  The closest available listing in the building is nearly $80,000 more for the same unit on a higher floor!  

Mott Smith is a great building with security guard, full time management, and well kept amenities. Don't  miss out!  Everything is selling fast these days!

The Fed stopped buying bonds, which means mortgage rates are up, but there won't be a double dip in housing according to an article in Forbes today.  Not sure if I agree or not, but the article is certainly compelling.

They state 5 reasons: 

First, the Fed is not planning on suddenly selling its holdings.

Second, they do not expect mortgage rates to suddenly spike as the Fed exits the market. Today, even though the Fed has ended its program of purchases, the "spread" between mortgage rates and the 10-year is only 120 basis points. Mortgage lenders are not having trouble finding the funds they need to lend.

Third, the amount of lending necessary to support the housing market in the next year is not particularly large by historical standards. 

If existing homes sell at a 5.75 million rate in the next 12 months (a 10% increase vs. the previous 12 months), that should require about $230 billion in net new lending. Meanwhile, new home sales should require about another $90 billion. (New homes average $275,000, assuming 20% down and sales equal to 400,000.)

Fourth, housing prices have fallen below fair value. Relative to rents, national average home prices are about 10% below fair value and have been the lowest relative to replacement cost in more than 30 years.

Fifth, and perhaps most important, the labor market--the last of the lagging economic indicators--has finally fallen into place as a positive for the economy. Private sector payrolls increased 123,000 in March (198,000 including upward revisions to prior months). Meanwhile, civilian employment, an alternative measure of jobs that includes the self-employed and startup businesses, is up 1.36 million in the past three months, the most for any three-month period since 1994.

Last week my clients Dustin and Leslie purchased a beautiful Moana Kai townhome in Hawaii Kai.  This complex is really popular right now - as another client of mine is now buying a beautiful unit to close later this month.

This unit has newly installed travertine tile floors, giving it a very elegant look.  Check out the kitchen with granite counters. 

Listed for $645k, this townhome has over 1760sqft, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and a large loft that can be a family room or office.  

Moana Kai is just about the best deal for newish condos in Hawaii Kai.  Just below is Nanea Kai, but there has hardly been anything for sale in there for a long time.  

Congrats to Justin and Shannon for buying a great home and for their soon coming baby!  They'll be moving in just in time to decorate and get setteled before the new addition arrives.  

I just saw this article in the Star Bulletin, and WOW I am impressed.  This is written by the director of the Hawaii Tax Department, and it is awesome! Some excerpts:

"The
proposed tax hike is one of the largest in state history. Raising the
GET from 4 percent to 5 percent would significantly impede Hawaii's
economic recovery because of the GET's broad reach. In a nutshell, this
proposed tax increase would remove roughly $500 million from Hawaii's
economy every year. As the saying goes, the GET taxes "anything that
moves" — including rent, food, clothing, gas, nonprescription medicine
and doctor visits"

"The poor, who have
the least ability to pay the tax on ordinary daily transactions and
have to spend nearly all of their funds to survive, would be hit
hardest. All businesses in Hawaii also would feel the impact as they
purchase goods, services and rent. Sales would slow, consumers will pay
more and jobs will be lost."

"For
the past year, the Lingle-Aiona administration has been working
vigorously to spur Hawaii's economic recovery. But with a 25 percent
state GET tax increase, Hawaii's hope of rounding the corner in the
near future will be stalled."

Right on KURT!  You rock! You get it!