Hawaii Real Estate Resource

The Garden Island newspaper reports that the Kauai Planning Commission has approved 2 beachfront projects on Kauai's East Side after a court ruling that previous decisions were unconstitutional.  The two projects receiving approval are the Coconut Plantation Village and the Coconut Beach Resort.  The first will have 192 multi-family units and the second will have 343.  Both will have a few hotel rooms as well.

I have not heard whether the projects are actually going to move forward, a question in my mind given the current economic conditions.  However the article had no information to the contrary.  I'll report more as I hear it including sales information.

The Garden Island article is located HERE.

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 More Kauai News!

According to the Kauai Garden Island newspaper, the Western Bypass Road in the Koloa/Poipu area has opened!  This 1.5 mile road will offer an alternative to taking busy Poipu Road through Koloa.  The Kukui'ula developers built the road, named Ala Kalanikaumaka (whew!), as a requirement for it's huge home/homesite and shopping village project in Poipu.  It is reported that ownership has been turned over to the county who will patrol it's 25 mph speed limit.

For those interested in becoming a part of the Kukui'ula lifestyle, you may contact me for information on this high-end, luxury community.

Aloha!

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   BREAKING NEWS IN HAWAII

According to today's Garden Island newspaper, Hawaii Superferry has announced it will postpone the start of service between Honolulu and the Big Island due to the economic crisis.  This service was to have been provided by the 2nd ship which is nearing completion in Mobile Alabama.  Apparently the company still plans on taking delivery in the February time-frame and will look for other uses.  The company anticipates a delay of approximately 1 year but that will likely be dependent on events between now and then.

The company also addressed service to Kauai which was cancelled over a year ago when protestors overwhelmed law enforcement.  No definite date for resuming service was given but it sounds like the earliest would be in the Spring of 2009.

Aloha!

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 The state Department of Business, Econoic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) has released September tourism figures and guess what, they dropped off a cliff!  Hawaii as a whole was down 19.5% and Kauai was down 29%!  Recent strength has been our Canadian visitors which declined by 6% which is small compared to the overall decline.  Of course the flip side of this is that it's a great time to visit Hawaii because the crowds are gone!

I've seen a shift in my real estate business here on Kauai from mainland & foreign investors to local buyers looking for a home to live in.  Fortunately for those people, prices are more reasonable these days and there is much more to choose from.

Aloha!

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The Honolulu Advertiser reported the latest Hawaii poll show slipping support for the planned elevated commuter rail project for Honolulu which is subject to referendum on November 4.  According to the article, 51% support the project, 43% oppose, and 5% are undecided.  A major concern is the cost of the project and related impact on taxes.

To me, the major issue is that it is planned to be an overhead steel on steel system.  That means steel wheels on steel rails which in turn means lots of NOISE!  I remember how Boston tore their overhead steel on steel system down in 2005 and replaced it with a subway system to eliminate the awful noise problem.  Is Honolulu on "track" to replicate the problem experienced in Boston?  Today's technology allows alternatives to steel on steel.  It is unfortunate that those alternatives do not appear to be under consideration for the Honolulu system.  But hey, it's another reason to come visit Kauai or Maui where we have great beaches without the headaches of a big city.

Aloha!

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 Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau ceremony

In my post of October 13, I commented on Kauai water safety after 3 of our visitors drowned on Sunday (and another the following day).  In related news, The Garden Island newspaper published an article today on hiring and promotions by the Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau.  I offer my congratulations to the 4 who were promoted and welcome the 3 who were hired. 

The goal of the Kauai Water Safety Bureau is stated as to educate the public (tourists and residents alike) on the dangers present at our multitude of beaches.  The organization now consists of 45 employees with 7 lifeguard towers.  I counted 18 beaches listed by Kauai Explorer and many of the ones I know of are not on the list so clearly we only have lifeguard protection for a small fraction of our beaches.  Dangers remain, drownings will continue, and please be careful so it's not you!

Aloha!

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 For those looking for stunning ocean views and low price, this could be the one for you!

Islander on the Beach Highly Desirable End Unit	Kauai's Coconut Coast
	Bedrooms	Studio
	Baths	1
	Living Area	372 sq ft
	Land Area	N/A
	Parking	Open
	View	Ocean (awesome)
	Last Update	October 24, 2008
	Top-floor end unit located in popular, completely-renovated oceanfront resort with short walking distance to Coconut Coast shopping & dining.  Superb sandy beach, pool, spa, tiki hut bar, tropical grounds.  Furnished, A/C and ready to go!  All new inside.
REPOSITIONED AT LOWER PRICE!  $299,000	Slide Show of Grounds Slide Show of Unit
MLS 179444 Richard Dolbeare (RA) Century 21 All Islands, (808) 651-4550

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With the departure of Aloha Airlines due to bankrupcy, the cost to fly interisland has risen substantially.  I fly between the islands frequently and put together a cost comparison which is published below.  I have personally travelled on each of the carriers below.  Cost comparisons are based on a trip duration of 1 week with a Wednesday departure and return.  The most expensive portion of travel is car rental.  Foir travel between Honolulu and Maui, that can be avoided by taking your car with you on the Superferry.  Or, for those that commute regularly between two islands as I do, it can pay to have a car on both islands.

1 Week Trip Duration Between Adjacent Major Islands

Data is as published on the carrier websites and is for travel between the closest major islands.  Where available, travel is round trip from Honolulu to Kauai and return.  Car rental is the published Avis internet rate for a standard car and parking is based on $8/day in the Honolulu Economy Lot. Departures were selected as close to 1 PM as possible without regard to fare.  Taxes and fees are included and there are no baggage charges for the first piece.  Not all airlines serve all islands and the Hawaii Superferry only runs between Honolulu and Maui at the current time.

Data herein is believed representative at the time of checking on carrier internet sites but it varies frequently and is not guaranteed.

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According to today's Garden Island newspaper, Poipu's largest project, Kukui'ula is laying off about 20% of it's staff because of market conditions.  The president is reported to have said he hoped no additional cuts would be necessary which leaves open the possibility that there could be more later.  It is reported that timelines for the homes, golf course, and shopping center are unaffected by this.

 Photo in The Garden Island newspaper

Kukui'ula is the largest ongoing development project on Kauai's South Shore.  The develoepr, Kukui'ula Development Company is comprised of a partnership between A&B Properties, Inc and DMB Associates, Inc.  A&B is a Hawaii company with extensive land holdings and DMB is an Arizone company with extensive experience in luxury home communities.

Kukui'ula is still marketing their homes and home sites.  I have information on the project including pricing and availability for those who are interested.

Aloha

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Escape to a Private Paradise--New Custom Home Kauai--Waipouli Countryside Bedrooms   2 + office Baths  2.5 Living Area  1743 sq ft Land Area  20,831 sq ft Parking  2-car garage View  Mountain & woodlands Last Update October 24, 2008 Escape to a private paradise with this new custom home on nearly 1/2 acre in the Waipouli countryside. Warm and inviting 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home features rich hardwood flooring, walk-in closets, & breathtaking mountain views REPOSITIONED AT LOWER PRICE!   $795,000 Select Photo:   P 1 2 3 4 5 MLS 194900  Contact Richard Dolbeare (RA), Century 21 All Islands, (808) 651-4550

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Senator Obama arrived in Honolulu last night and went directly to visit his ailing grandmother Madelyn Dunham (Toot) in her apartment.  The story as reported by the Honolulu Advertiser can be found HERE.

This post is not an endorsement of any particular candidate for president as my blog is used to report Hawaii news & real estate information and not for political purposes. We all hope for a recovery for Madalyn Dunham but the news reports do not sound optimistic.

Aloha,

Search Kauai/Big Island | Search Maui | Email | About Me | Visit Website| Phone/Text   (808) 651-4550                                                                                                               

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It's Thursday here in Hawaii where the news has been a little light this week.  Maybe that's a good thing given the trend of recent nationwide news.  The biggest, little news item I found was the temporary shutdown of Mokulele Airlines due to a training issue.  It seems that the FAA determined that proper fire extinguisher training had not been completed.  It's a tiny airline so the problem was quickly rectified and they were flying again the next day.  Per my post of October 19, it's soon to graduate from 9-weat prop planes to interisland jet service ((For information about this tiny airline, refer to my October 19 Active Rain post HERE.).

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Having generated the data for "seasonal" variations in Kauai sales, I thought I'd take a look at what yearly sales look like for the period 2000 to 2008.  We all know that sales are down nationwide and Kauai is no exception.  The chart below seems a good way to show what is going on based on our historical closing data.  Percentages are relative to the total closings since the new millennium arrived on January 1, 2000.

Of course the year 2008 still has 2 1/2 months to go so it will look better by the end of the year.  Still, since November and December are our slowest months, 2008 promises to show even fewer closings than 2007 which certainly was not a stellar year.  But the good news is that better times are ahead!

[Information herein is deemed reliable but has not been independeltly verified and is not guaranteed]

Aloha!

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On the mainland, real estate sales typically perk up in the Spring after being relatively dormant during the Winter months.  National data shows that the busy months for closings is the period of May through August with a peak in the months of June and July. 

Our mainland visitors often ask what the busy season is for Kauai and I've heard various answers based on personal experience of the agent.  In order to better answer this question, I took a look at our Kauai sales data for the last 7 years (I excluded 2008 data since the year is not over) and found that actual closings are surprisingly level-loaded.  See the chart below for the data.

It does appear we could use a few more closings in the months of November and December so I invite you to come on over and buy that dream home today!  Aloha!

[Information herein is deemed reliable but has not been independeltly verified and is not guaranteed]

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This post of for my Kauai contacts seeking information on condo sales history in the Poiipu, Kauai area. Data has been extracted from our Kauai multiple list system and charted in Excel.

The first chart is for "legacy condos".  I use the term "legacy condos" to mean those built in 1990 or earlier.  Much of Poipu was constructed in the 1979-1980 time frame so this data applies mostly to resale units as opposed to new construction.  The data is as reported in our Kauai MLS system with leasehold, timeshare, and shared-ownership excluded.  The yellow trend line constructed automatically by Excel shows a decline of around 25% when comparing today's prices to early 2006.  That does not necessarily mean an individual unit has declined in value by that amount as this is only a measure of what is selling.

For my contacts interested in the Makahuena condo complex, I offer the chart below.  Note that the 2 sharp spikes are for units with direct ocean frontage which command higher prices.  Also, the one labeled "Straight-On-Oceanview" is uniquely positioned so as to have an awesome direct oceanview without actually being oceanfront itself.  No trend line is presented as it's not meaningful for the mix of oceanfront and non-oceanfront sales.  Makahuena is located on rocky cliffs above the ocean and the views are as awesome as the ocean spray is wet.  The chart background photo is from the Makahuena grounds.

Information herein is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should not be relied on for purchase or sale decisions. 

Aloha!

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 New jet service for Hawaii interisland travel

It has just been announced that Hawaii is getting additional jet service for inter-island travel.  The local commuter airline, Mokulele Airlines has executed an agreement with Republic Airways to operate 4 Embraer 170 jets offering 6 first class and 64 coach seats.  After Aloha Airlines passenger service was cancelled due to bankruptcy, fares have gone up and flight availability down so this is welcome news.  Current jet service is offered by Hawaiian Airlines and GO Airlines.  Neither of those offers first class seating and I question the rationale for Mokulele in providing this for flights that are typically 1/2 hour in duration.  Service is to begin November 19.

I flew on Mokulele Airlines for the first time last month and it was most interesting.  Their current Cessna single-engine turboprop seats 9 passengers plus 2 crew although my flight had a pilot but no copilot or flight attendant.  The front seat is best for would-be pilots because you can watch the pilot fly the aircraft.  Although I'm sure it's very reliable, the fact that this aircraft only has one engine and one pilot did give me pause, especially since most of the flight is over the ocean.

 Current Cessna turboprop aircraft

Wishing you many happy flights on Mokulele!

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 Tools From Yester-Year

MOSAIC 1.0 RELEASED NOVEMBER 1993

Who remembers the release of Mosaic, the first user-friendly web browser that preceeded Netscape?  It was developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. and released in November 1993.  While I'd like to say I was in kindergarten at the time, I was actually well into my engineering career when this huge development hit.  It was only available at work or so I thought.  Imagine my surprise when I learned I could actually get internet service at home and use it there!  Back then, internet service was via dial-up moden and what today seems agonizingly slow was just absolutely incredible then.

Mosaic was responsible for popularizing the World Wide Web with it's easy installation, icons, bookmarks, and yes, even PICTURES!  The print function was to be developed later so the best one could do was print a screen shot.  In retrospect, that saved a lot of paper.

Other fun things from years past are shown below.  Who recognizes them?  Even better, who has owned and used them?

How about the one below?  It changed everything and only cost $459 (with company discount) at it's initial release.  It's "Reverse Polish"notation isn't widely available anymore but I still prefer it.  Imagine, no equal ("=") key!!!  This one still works and I wish I'd had it turned on when I took the photo.

OK, enough fun, back to work now...

Aloha!

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Century 21 All Islands continues to dominate the Kauai real estate market as shown in the updated chart below.  The brokerage has 3 offices on Kauai plus multiple offices on Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island.  Recent rumors that the company had closed some of it's offices on Kauai are incorrect.  This may have been triggered by the recent move of the Kapaa office from it's old location in the Safeway shopping center to the Kapaa Professional Building.

Aloha,

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Our local newspaper, The Garden Island, announced today that 3 Kauai visitors drowned in 2 separate incidents yesterday.  One was on an East-Side beach in Kapaa where a man drowned off Kauai Sands beach.  The other was 2 women who were swept off a ledge by a large wave at Queens Bath in Princeville on the North Shore and subsequently drowned.

Sadly, such tragedies are more common on Kauai than our visitors realize.  The North Shore is known to be unusually hazardous in the Winter months when seas are high and currents treacherous.  Please keep this in mind when you come visit us.  For the last 20 years, there were an average of 10 drownings each year on Kauai and 70% were tourists.  Some beaches have lifeguards but because of the large number of beaches, most are unprotected.

Kauai is a wonderful place to live and to visit but it's essential to beware of dangers.  Once source of safety information and stories is the Surviving Paradise website.  Please be careful when you come visit!!!

Aloha!

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BREAKING NEWS ON KAUAI! 

Letters have been issued to those under contract for Kauai's new, almost oceanfront Kai'Olino project in Eleele.  I just received my own letter advising that economic conditions do not allow the project to go forward at this time.  According to the letter, all those under contract may request a refund of their deposit plus interest and will be released from the contract.  I'll post more later.

Aloha!

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 Engineering Hawaii Dreams Today--Helping Buyers Find Dream Homes & Sellers Find Buyers

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