06-16-2007, 10:24 AM
quote:
High interest rates and sub-primes have sunk the market now.
well, I wish someone would inform the sellers, because I've made three lower offers on houses I consider to be overpriced (based on living here 5 years and knowing the issues with fixing houses, costs of landscaping, what things have been selling for, etc..) -- and all three stuck to essentially full price. Very discouraging.
Hotzcatz, thanks so much for more news on O'okala. First, you are absolutely correct that the family tragedy i.e. car accident was with the prior owners, not the current guy (got that straightened out).
I talked to Scott who is heading up protectookala, and he said many of the same things you did, but that he still puts the chances at 60/40 (against/for) and it would not be safe to gamble that the mill project will fail. He says the mill project is smoke and mirrors, the backers are in it for the power plant that goes with.
Sadly, I would not want to live with a power plant upwind of me any more than a mill.
It's a shame that the industrial zoning was allowed to remain in place when the sugar mills closed, keeping the door open for heavy industrial uses right smack in the middle of residential. How they can contemplate exposing residents to such uses is beyond me.
Scott also said the promised local "jobs" went from 400 to 100 to 40, and in reality most jobs would be specialized and employees imported from the mainland.
But back to real estate -- for Hamakua towns not facing industrial issues -- prices are unbelievable. People from the mainland spend 800,000 for their retirement gentleman's farm/horse spread, get homesick in two years, and expect to jack the price another hundred thousand for the next fool with money who likes the idea of living there and will not last either. Meanwhile the people who would really love to live there (me! me!) have to look at shacks on tiny little lots.