Sales up, pricing down

[Rob Tucker]

During the run up in real estate a few years back there was an influx of speculators who were buying houses sight unseen from the mainland. Many were interesting in flipping properties ala California and some succeeded and at the end many did not. A hot market was drawing in heavy speculation which did not really serve anyone, much less the Big Island, very well. Many of these were not second home buyers but were nineteenth and twentieth home buyers.

It is also true in my opinion that a good number of local builders jumped on the wagon with the result that we got seriously overbuilt with 3+2s which now sit empty if they are not vandalized.