There are now 20 brand new homes for sale in HPP.

[terracore]

Interesting op-ed piece on this topic at Civil Beat today:

https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/04/hawaii...expensive/

This was written by a developer who can in no way be unbiased, but some of what he says about the departure of the Hawaii real estate market from normal economic restraints is spot on.  Pay particular interest to what he says about outside buyers distorting the market.  In my part of HPP, more than a few of those speculatively built houses have been bought by mainlanders, sometimes without even seeing them in person.  Imagine their surprise to find a rooster farm next door.  Does anyone know if sellers would be required to disclose rooster farms?  Since most of the Puna subdivisions are zoned agricultural, I suspect not.

  
I think he makes a lot of valid points, but they are mostly applicable to the smaller islands.

One of his statements: "And Gov. Josh Green recently reported there are 89,000 short-term rentals throughout the state. And “52% of all STRs are owned by non-state residents, with 27% owning 20 units or more.” .....For quick relief, Gov. Green should sign an emergency proclamation relating to housing that would put a moratorium on all STRs and return them to the long-term housing market."

I think this misses the point.  If Gangrene puts a moratorium on STRs the deeper pockets don't go away, a lot of them will become long term rentals.  That might help the LTR market but it doesn't necessarily improve local home ownership.  Investment firms are buying housing to rent all over the country.  The CRE market is trashed so they've moved on.  Oahu is in an unusual situation where renting a property is frequently less expensive than buying one (from a monthly payment point of view) so they have a ready pool of renters to exploit.