Decline in Real Estate

[Jared I]

We have charts:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailyp...estate.gif

[Nate SC]

I wonder if the lots near Chernobyl are cheap? I bet there are lots where you can sit on the deck having drinks and not even feel your liver twitch. Think about it.

[JerryCarr]

Actually, the government of Ukraine reports that several hundred people are still living in the "hot zone" around Chernobyl despite decades of efforts to clear the area. Some are even farming the contaminated soil for subsistence. It is illegal to sell crops from the worst areas since some veggies apparently concentrate radioactive isotopes. (You have to wonder how much gets cheated into the food supply.) Many of the local invertebrates have frequent genetic mutations and formerly edible mushrooms are now poisonous.

But, hey, it's free real estate. It makes those lots near Kalapana covered with 1992 pahoehoe look positively attractive. (And there are people living there, too.)

Cheers,
Jerry

[mella l]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/31/REGIPN9G4C1.DTL&hw=baby+boomers&sn=001&sc=1000

Speaking of what Baby Boomers might or might not do here is an interesting article. It says that after people reach 50 fewer than 10 percent move at all and fewer than 5 percent of those move to a different state.

For those interested this study was done by the Brookings Institution for the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington, of people born between 1946 through 1964.

mella l

[oink]

And almost the entire 5% moves to S. Fla.

S. FL Islander to be

[Fishboy]

Mella,
I'll be among those few who actually DO move. I want to live where the weather is no issue; just one season!

I've lived in the Alaskan arctic and elsewhere in that state for most of my adult life. I'm now in the Seattle area and it's been cold and rainy for MONTHS! Jeez, I'm SO ready to move!

Warm weather alohas,
Brian

[toucano]

Fishboy - if you don't like the cooler/wetter PacNW climate (I lived there for many decades and grew tired of it - yes we rusted not tanned in the summer), you might want to avoid buying in the higher elevations here. I babysat a friends house in Oct/Nov 2005 located near Volcano at about 3,000' as I recall. I was miserable a lot of the time. Too much like PacNW for my taste. Even with a small wood stove.

But it is all a matter of personal taste. One possible downside to lower Puna areas is a bit more rain, higher humidity, higher density, more commercial. The tradeoff was easy for me and I bought at about the 500' elevation. I can appreciate that when it is sunny and humid where I am, it must be more comfortable up there. But when it is rainy and a bit cool here, I think of what it would be like up there and I know it was the right choice for me.

[tada]

You're leaving Seattle for the Big Island???? No joke like that. You're leaving the best food in the world from the cold North Pacific. Who cares if it's fished out- I'll grab the last rock cod!

Others want to make friends- I just want to make money.
James Cramer

[adias]

"Hawaii's Housing Boom Takes a Toll on the Homeless" Wall Street Journal, Thursday, January 11, 2007

By Rafael Gerena-Morales
Word Count: 1,704
WAIANAE, Hawaii -- Rising before dawn, Patrick Wong walks 45 minutes to his drugstore job in Kapolei, a suburban town 20 miles west of Honolulu, where he stocks shelves starting at 7 a.m. The post pays $8.25 an hour and offers health insurance for Mr. Wong, his wife and partially deaf toddler.

But Mr. Wong, 33 years old, and his family can't afford a place to live. Five months ago they left his mother's home, where he was paying $600 a month in rent. Faced with the steepest rents of any state and scant available public housing, they were forced ...

http://users2.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB116845808553872913.html%3Fmod%3Dhpp_us_pageone

[Kahunascott]

Hey Fishboy,
Hope your not moving to Puna. We have two seasons. It's winter here and has just rained for 8 straight days and nights.