Love Thy Tourist?

[VancouverIslander]

gypsy: I agree that Puna should receive it's fair share of tourist dollars to help with the homeless situation. At the same time, we shouldn't try to drive tourism away as it can provide the dollars to help with some of the problems as well as provide income for Puna families so they can afford a place to stay. In the long run, it will create more housing. I know of at least one person who added a suite so they could rent it to tourists, but probably wouldn't have added it for long term rental. If immigration regulations allowed me to move to Puna full time I probably would buy up a number of homes for long term rentals for locals. It's crazy how many potential renters contact you when you rent a house out and when you can buy a place for $150,000, mortgage 80% at today's mortgage rates and you pay less than 600 a month and collect $1000/month in rent. Someone else pays for your house while you make some pretty good capital gains over time. Sure, you might only get a place out in the jungle for that price, but it's still a pretty sweet place to live compared to a lot of the world. If I were a young person in Puna I'd be busting by butt and saving every penny to buy my own place. In a few years as equity built up I'd leverage that to buy another place and eventually I'd own many homes that will provide a comfortable living. I've seen people do this in other parts of the world and become very wealthy.

If anyone can think of an industry to replace or add to tourism revenue, I'd love to hear about it.

Just call me Mike