Moving this Year-Hilo Vs. Kona

[Robin C]

I wasn't here when the big storms hit, so am not familiar with how common flooding is. In rural areas the ground is so porous that puddles quickly diappear.

Building vs Buying a house is a great thing to look into. Check out some of the threads in the Building in Puna forum. Building seems to to take a long time....but you can get exactly what you want. I have found Pam's "Lamont's latest" and Royall's "Latest step completed" to be very informative.

We decided to buy an existing home. We found one on an acre that fit like a glove. For us, this was the right decision.

Check out the Hawaii Information Service for MLS listings.
I second (or third) the recommendation to buy the East Hawaii Readymap book. We used it during our visits and also when doing research to cross reference with the MLS to see pricing differences.

I also recommend subscribing to Harry Pritikin's daily updates. It shows MLS updates daily. Harry's a realtor, but you aren't obligated to use him just by subscribing. [A note: We have used him for a purchase and he was great to work with.]
You can get on the list by emailing him at trust@bigisle.net
Ask for the Hilo update to get the Puna area. He also has updates for Kau and Kailua-Kona.

Robin