10-01-2006, 03:04 PM
Well, if it was data from 1999 that would have been four years after the sugar company closed - although the last harvest delayed the actual demise a bit. Also in '95 there was a huge welfare cut, so the people around Hilo had (collectively) lost about 40% of their income and many of them had lost their jobs just several years before. We had more people leaving the island than arriving since there was no support for them. Rental prices were incredibly low and many houses were empty since they couldn't get renters at all. Folks weren't driving their cars since they couldn't afford gasoline, they weren't painting or repairing their houses - other than no money to do it with, the houses had no "value" other than to keep the rain off. It takes quite awhile for a community to recover from the depth of income loss Hilo had sustained, so of course the prices were incredibly low.
Also at that time the stock market was doing a meteoric rise for the moon so folks were putting their investment money in the market instead of land. However, at the beginning of 2000 the market tanked and folks were looking for new places to put whatever money they had left.
Also at that time the stock market was doing a meteoric rise for the moon so folks were putting their investment money in the market instead of land. However, at the beginning of 2000 the market tanked and folks were looking for new places to put whatever money they had left.
Kurt Wilson