Is the realestate market heating up?

[unknownjulie]

I am not in real estate, but like to look at listings for fun, and it appears that HPP in particular has almost no low priced good inventory anymore. Does anyone have any anacdotal stories of what's going on? It looks like there is still a high inventory of land available, but I dont know how long that will last if it becomes more cost effective to build a house- as opposed to buying a cheap foreclosure. Opinions?

[terracore]

Last time I ran into our realtor he said the inventory was 50% of what it was a year ago but prices had only gone up modestly. And that was about 6 months ago and the inventory has shrunk since then too so it's bound to effect prices.

[kalakoa]

Building code revisions made new construction more expensive, so I would expect the existing stock to sell out first.

UH economists say construction is "picking up", but they're probably (mostly) referring to Oahu and its $5B rail project.

[Seeb]

There has been 7 house starts on my 1 mile section of road in HPP within the last year.

[unknownjulie]

Yeah, I think more people are just about to build. I may be one of them, because a year ago I was thinking of buying a cheap house, but now I may just decide to build on my lot in Orchidland. There really isnt much out there now for less than the cost of building. IMO. I'm not a builder and it might cost more than I think it would to build, but I used to see houses that I was certain were far cheaper than their replacement cost.

[pahoated]

HGTV had two specials last year on living in Hawaii and real estate. Now, there is a weekly series called Hawaiian Life that is about real estate for all the islands.

This isn't good, Hawaii is usually forgotten on the mainland, except for the occasional dream vacation, and making it a weekly series, especially playing up the "reality" TV side of the realtors, buyers and sellers lifestyles, brings too much constant attention to the mainland short attention span. Hopefully, they will emphasize the high cost of living, lack of good roads and not much beyond service jobs.

"It was a majority decision to descend into the Dark Ages. Don't worry, be happy, bang on da drum all day! Onward to Elysium."