Moving to big island

[jasonak]

Hello Forum!

Have been to Kauai in feb of 11 just got back from Maui about two weeks ago. Loved Kauai and have been looking for property there but everything is very expensive so started looking on big island prices are half here. Is there a certain reason why places are so much cheaper on the big island ?? this to me seems like a really good deal

http://www.bigislandreale.com/Search/Def...opup248022

I wanted to stay 200k or cheaper but with a pool and acre seems way to good of a deal. I want to buy within next 6 months while interest rates are low and house prices are as well.But will probablly not move over for another year. I know they say on here to rent and live there for awhile and that might be possible for me to do next summer for a month or two. I have lived in the islands before carribean not hawaiian so understand island life. Coming from Alaska we are pretty isolated as well.
thanks for any input

[csgray]

The fact that we have one actively erupting volcano, and several others that could let loose anytime (although we would get warning) probably has something to do with it. Even if you aren't downhill from a flow, the VOG can also be a factor even if you are just downwind.

The volcano factor hit home for me when I was teaching an earth/space science class to 8th graders and came across a scholarly article that wrote about how Kilauea will recover itself completely with lava every thousand years until it is as big as Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and that it would continue erupting for as long as people are expected to live on this planet. Mauna Loa may look dead but it is only being quiet, even Mauna Kea is not considered extinct yet.

I am fascinated by these volcanoes, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but the volcanoes have a very real impact on life here.

Carol

[jasonak]

I did look up the lava flow chart. I know it is possible that the volcanoes could erupt and i have read of home being covered with lava there and roads. It does also seem like a very cool thing to be living next to as well. I know that may sound weird to some. We have volcanoes here and they do blow now and then but they are so far away we will just get ash from them,they make air quality bad for a few days as well.

So that is a pretty real fear there though that u may lose your property ? Is crime worse or anything like that on the big island ?

[PaulW]

I think the main reasons the Big Island is so much cheaper is because 1) there is so much land and 2) there are so few beaches (on the East side anyway). I'm not worried about the volcanoes and crime is relatively low.

Could you provide a better link? Where is this property?

[ericlp]

Hmmm, I think I'd be more worried about the entire island is expected to be covered in lava at least once again. So no one is really safe except for MAYBE that small part of the island in Lava Zone 8. It's just a matter of time. But hopefully I'll see some spectacular eruptions in my life time. I find it funny all that money spent on inspections and property taxes just so it will be covered in Lava again and again till maybe in a million or so years when the platonic plates shift us off the hot spot ... by that time the new island will be formed and people will be surfing the white sands of the east side of the big island where the new pipeline beach will be named. Oahu might be half the size of Kauai and Kauai will be an under water reef!

[csgray]

I would say it is not a matter of fear, so much as awareness. But the volcanoes, lack of stereotypical white sandy beaches because we are such a new island, and the shortage of economic development that produces family wage jobs in a place with such a high cost of living, all add up to a cheaper real estate market than islands with a different profile.

I love this place, and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but it is good to be realistic about what a place is and isn't before buying.

Carol

[jasonak]

We in Alaska have a kinda high crime rate well anchorage does which is where i grew up. The property is in Puna Makuu HPP 15-1978 22nd Ave it was one of many I found in Puna area that were really well priced and came with acre of property. Theres many very good deals on the site I was looking at. Sorry the link was working. Even found a place that was 6k sq feet with pool on 3 acres for like 280 or something like that,,its got to be sitting on a volcano or something though lol

[dayna]

There is a different type of crime in Alaska. I promise you. It is different here.

I'm from Alaska (moved here in may of this year).

I like Puna better than alaska. A lot of the same types of crime, drug, alcohol, and DM related) but really it's different. People have less "cabin fever" here.

Many good neighborhoods here. Gotta come and look around. Lots of differences in each neighborhood. On one street you might have 60 roosters and a meth house. Next street over lots of families and very involved neighbors.

Come and have a look before you buy. In fact, like many have suggested to others before you, come and rent before you buy.

Dayna

www.E-Z-Caps.com

[Obie]

When you buy property on the Big Island,you need to realize you are only renting from Madam Pele !!

The only reason I am not worried about major climate or other cataclysmic events,is I own a house in another state and the fact that we didn't pay an outrageous amount of money for our house and property here !

[EightFingers]

Jason,
Take a close look at that property on makuu. Some parts of that area (west of 14th, about) are choked with albizia trees. Educate yourself about those before you buy.