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During my short time here so far, it is becoming apparent there is a high turnover in the occupants around here.
My rough estimate is 50%.
There are the people that come here and decide it isn't for them, sometimes in days, sometimes in months and for some, a few years.
Then there are the people that have no plan, try to wing it without any source of income and are unable to find a job, eventually having to go back to the mainland.
The next group are the ones that have a mortgage on a mainland place, then have a mortgage here, often having to deal with the downturn in the economy in their mainland area, plus going underwater on their place here. I have seen about 4 or 5 of these within a few block area in Shores, the houses going into foreclosure, just in the past couple of months.
The next most common are those that decide to move over to Kona side and others that decide to move to another island, some deciding to move to Thailand and Indonesia.
My estimate is about 40% of the houses in Shores are unoccupied, some being snowbird second homes, some being Japanese vacation homes, some abandoned. Now, there is a slight uptick in people buying vacant lots off the internet sight unseen and clearing going on. There are squatters roaming around looking for empty and abandoned houses. There are groups of burglars, driving around, casing the neighborhoods.
Anyway, it seems like a lot of population turnover. In my estimate, I have met more people leaving or planning to leave than people that are long time residents or have no plans to leave. This is on the basis of casual conversations in coffee shops, neighborhood events, downtown events, etc.
What do others think? Is there a lot of turnover or is it about the same or conversely, think there are more people moving in than ever? I see a lot of people moving in but it seems to me there are more people moving out.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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When I moved to Alaska, my plan was to live there 2 years to experience it, and then either move back to Portland or somewhere else. But I loved it there, and I spent almost 15 years there. I was eventually driven out due the high cost of living, lack of health care, harsh weather, and a feeling that it was time to move on. So I came to the big island. With no intentions of leaving. We were lucky that I was able to transfer to a good job here. And the cost of living and health care is better here. And I don't have to shovel snow or buy heating fuel ever again. Most people who go to Alaska go because there are a lot of jobs there or because the coast guard or military. I would say that most transplants have no intention of staying there long term and it has higher turnover than the Big Island.
Most people I know live within 50 miles of where they grew up. Most of the ones that moved away had some sort of external motivator (joined the military, got a scholarship, etc). The adventurous ones that moved away "just because" are prone to repeating that. Those are the same type of people that come to the Big Island. If they weren't temporarily coming here, it would be somewhere else. I think the percentage in Manhattan is higher than here. And many other places too.
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We bought our house here a couple years ago. We are coming up to having lived here one year on September 6th. We love it and have no intention of leaving. But, yes, there does seem to be a high turn over rate. We did our homework before we moved and also mage quite a few trips here first. There are a lot of vacant houses. Ours was rented before we moved into it.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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And then you have the type of people who set goals and plan things for the future. They traveled here several times while living on the mainland to make sure that Puna was where they wanted to live. They tried all times of the year to make sure they could handle the rain or the heat or even the vog. They talked with people who lived here and asked lots of questions and basically just did their homework. And when they finally retired from their mainland jobs...they sold their home and bought or built one here. They have no mortgage...they have retirement income to live on....they love working in the garden and watching things grow all year long. And they just basically love it here and would never live anyplace else.
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Yeah, that is the other 50% stay rate, my topic was about the estimated 50% transient rate and this place seems like the Grand Central station of transients, both upper and lower scales of the connotation.
Kind of funny, there was a guy on a bigislandvideonews that said he was part of a community group in Leilani estates, and out of the 14 members, he was the only one that wasn't retired. That's another topic but my estimate for Puna is about 85% retired, of the 50% that stay.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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Ted,
Maybe after they met you, they finally called it quits. 
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I agree with almost all of your initial assessment, pahoated. The fact remains that the island population is increasing dramatically. So somehow more are staying than leaving. It is the most transient place I have ever lived though.
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Well, we did it very differently...
Moved to Maui in 2001, had a house built in what turned out to be a gated community outside of Haiku. When we needed more land for the nursery expansion, we were priced out of the market. Also, even though it was an Ag. subdivision, neighbors didn't like the idea that we were actually going to do Ag! Spent a year under contract for 9 acres in Hana, which we fell in love with. After that fell through, we came over here for an exploring weekend, found our place, and made an offer the same day. We did do a lot of walking and checking the land out that day. Got it, and moved over October of 2004. We landed in just the right spot, and are not thinking of going at all. Great neighborhood ohana adds to it. What we didn't like about Maui (other than Hana) was that it was so touristy and commercial, though we'd been tourists several times. We didn't worry about the volcano, having been next to Mt. St. Helens when it went off.
Lesson learned from all this is for people too figure out who they are and what they want... all else falls out from there. We've close friends here who are moving back, but for health reasons. I can readily understand that.
Jane
White Cloud Nursery
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Thats why longer term residents are hesitant to make friends with newcomers you go though the effort to get to know someone then pooofff there gone
I think people that dont have to make a living here are more likely to stay. which brings some problems with it.
and usually if someone starts a thread like this, real estate'ers start sandbagging the thread not wanting any potential buyers reading from afar
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quote:
Originally posted by Seeb
Thats why longer term residents are hesitant to make friends with newcomers you go though the effort to get to know someone then pooofff there gone...
Yes, I believe this is my experience too. This is also lends credence to my thought many years ago that it was hard to make friends with people who grew up on the island. After twenty two years on this island, for me, this phenomenon has passed. I went through this feeling of distancing myself 7-8 yrs ago when the amount of information being extracted from me by so many people I met those years was just overwhelming, and I began to pull back and spend a lot more time with my longer term friends. Now the ratio seems to have leveled out a lot. Some new, some old.
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