if you bought a house in Puna in the last 5 years

[StillHope]

ARM is a predatory lending practice and the loans with ARM still being offered even to people with good credit !(I know it for a fact).

[lostboystoy]

hmm seems to me I included the idiots that over extended themselves.
I am not saying that the real estate agents and the lending agents were the only ones to blame. When it comes done to it. It is the responsibility of the person buying the home.
You know whether or not you can afford it. But when you have agents acting more like used car salesmen. It's amazing what people will do when their told it ISA great invesment. Or look at how much money you will make off the property.
What happened to the days when you bought a home as a longtterm investment.
Or putting a sound roof over your families head.

I think the word I am looking for Is greedy bastards



setting my soul free....

[missydog1]

Dave

quote:

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You make Realtors sound like Time-Share salesman. That sounds more like a car sales pitch or a sweater at the mall.

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No, unlike lostboystoy I have not had the misfortune of working with a high pressure sales agent. I have liked both of the buyer's agents I've worked with here.

[ric]

I don't think lostboy was talking about someone trying to make money from a rehab in his use of the term "greedy", I understood that he was talking about people buying beyond their means, which is a huge part of the current problem.

Mad at the CEO's? CEO's aren't responsible to take care of our personal finances. They are there to make money for their shareholders (anyone own stock here?). It's tough out there, and we have to take care of ourselves. Keep in mind that the people who still can afford their property are being hurt just as much, perhaps more than those who lose theirs or walk away. Even those of us who bought a house we could afford have still lost big.

For those who don't own a house now, the good thing is that the market for renters is the best it's ever been.

Best wishes Kathy, I hope you find that stability, and the solution may be hard and far away, but it will be worth it.

[ric]

StillHope, an ARM can be a great product when interest rates are at a high, and also they are a good tool to take advantage of low rates when you only plan to be in a house say, 5 or 7 years. But people can't use that to facilitate buying a larger house than they can afford. Given that the house someone is buying is affordable for them, the ARM can put an extra $100 or $200 in their bank every month. That should be cream, but people ended up using it to push their envelope into something they couldn't afford. Don't rip the product because of mass mis-use by consumers. I think it is still (at the moment) a free country, and consumers can choose from a number of loan products, people just didn't think or take care of what they were doing and chose one that didn't work for them. PS. I am not a banker.

[missydog1]

The market for renters is good now, but rent can be raised at any time things get more prosperous. The most a person has is a year lease without a rent increase. I saw what happened to rents here 2002-2005; it was brutal for tenants.

So in the short term, renting is appealing, but long term no.
Maybe in Puna because of all the spec homes overbuilt, but not the rest of the island.

I'm not asking for good wishes or sympathy. Simply giving some examples of how life throws things at people from time to time. It can happen to anyone.

I was not singling out anyone in particular as being blaming; it's just a general tone around here that people (some, not all) get judgmental, based on their ability to run their own lives along certain principles, thinking that everyone else can do the same, or should do the same.

[Dave M]

Kathy,

There's nothing wrong with expecting to make some dollars off your work and upgrades. Sweety, Your situation sucked without a market fall, needless to say how it has been magnified by the fall out. I wish I had the money I'd buy your place sight unseen, knowing you I bet it's pretty tastefully redone.

Yes, there are stories like these everywhere. As I said to Radioguy it's not that big of a deal if you can hang out for a while unfortunately not the case for you.

Myself? well since we're coming clean and I doubt if anyone is reading this other than You, me and lostboy, my story starts just as you mentioned with a death in the family in 2003..

I personally believe that every thing happens for a reason and that those of us that feel the need to move on, or we are forced to move on, do so because we have not completed some part of our destiny, but that's just me.

Whatever the case, I wish the very best for you and your situatiion and I hope my continued drooling defense of Realtors hasn't caused you to much additional stress.

Blessings,
dave

"It doesn't mean that much to me.. to mean that much to you." Neil Young

[ric]

Those landlords raising rents was in response to the values going up. If they didn't raise rents, the only sensible option would be to sell, right? I guess we've seen both happen.

I don't think anyone has any benefit from judging someone else on this board. This is just a forum of ideas. I came to this board to get answers to local issues that I have no clue about. There are a number of PW contributors who have a whole wealth of great idea. On this really important issue, it keeps coming back to alot of folks rushing into the market (not anyone in particular) and driving prices up, in a sort of "don't miss the boat" panic, people not realizing that they couldn't hang on when the boat starts to sink.

There is another culprit that I want to mention, because I thought about this many times starting about 7 years ago when things were starting to boom on the mainland: the Fed (Alan Greenspan at the time, now Bernanke) has toyed with our finances by adjusting the Fed fund rate to accomplish whatever it's own agenda is. Greenspan kept the interest rates too low for too long, and it fueled the housing bubble. Say, for someone with a $1500/mo. budget, it would have been better for them to get a house at $200k with a 7.5% mortgage in 2004, rather than the same house inflated to $300k, which they bought with a 5.5% mortgage. Problem is . . . 4-5 years later, they still owe $290k, and they are at the mercy of interest rates going up or whatever. Had the Fed gently raised interest rates to slow the 'boom', prices would have stabilized much earlier, interest rates would have been higher, people's monthly payment would still be the same for the same house,but they wouldn't be carrying so much debt. Hmmm ...

And now Greenspan's replacement, Bernanke, is the one testifying that we need to do all these bailouts, NONE of which has helped any of us.

What these guys are doing at the federal level is something that individually, none of us can really influence.

[Dave M]

"There is another culprit that I want to mention, because I thought about this many times starting about 7 years ago when things were starting to boom on the mainland: the Fed (Alan Greenspan at the time, now Bernanke) has toyed with our finances by adjusting the Fed fund rate to accomplish whatever it's own agenda is. Greenspan kept the interest rates too low for too long, and it fueled the housing bubble."

I agree with you and at the risk of getting a "Keep it Hawaii" from Rob I'll add another very sneaky but large contributing factor and it's the de-regulation of the lending practices of the last 20 years, and yes it goes against both sides of the isle as well as the last 4 presidents (not terms).

Blessings,
dave

"It doesn't mean that much to me.. to mean that much to you." Neil Young

[missydog1]

Thank you Dave.
No, lol, it doesn't stress me that you defend real estate agents. Most of the agents I know are very nice people, and they're hurting now too. I've known two real slimeballs and heard of some others here. As with any profession, perhaps especially when sales and commission are involved, some unethical people will gravitate. But the majority I know are good people who truly enjoy connecting people to future homes and helping people move on.

quote:

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Those landlords raising rents was in response to the values going up. If they didn't raise rents, the only sensible option would be to sell, right?

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No, not necessarily. Rents went up even by landlords with small mortgage payments. Without being an expert on the rental market, I would say that rents went up because the population was on the increase and the rental market was tight.

At the point we bought at first, a month's rent was as much as a mortgage payment, so no wonder people want to own and not throw money away every month. I am in favor of more people owning; rentals here are very badly maintained all too often, and bring the overall community down, whereas more owners take care of their property.

One of the problems I see is some of this is artificial, people waiting to have it be officially declared the bottom, who can buy but are waiting. Meanwhile when no one is buying it brings hardship on many.