A lot of folks do not realize the full implications of this
if they do not share my home state, so I thought I would keep this news in the loop.
I should note that I think Governor Linda Lingle is doing agreat job and that none of this is her fault. Is simply
the whole economy spilling over to us. What can you do? I live on Kauai and real estate has really been hit hard overall.
The state's tourism industry, for example, had its
visitor count tumble by by some ten percent from last
year, which is brutal since tourism is actually the
mainstay of the local economy overall.
In addition to this, it will be stung by various cuts
from its tourism special
fund this year, so there will be fewer programs in
place or at least fully funded with which to promote
Hawaii.
Real estae has already suffered on Oahu, kauai and
other islands. Furthermore,
real income growth is not anticipated to rebound until
sometime around 2010, and unemployment should grow as
well as local firms cut back on salaries or even
downsize.
Concerning real estate, home sales on the main isle of
Oahu sagged to its lowest point in some ten years as
credit markets got stingier. And now concerning Kauai real estate and it's specific issues:
All in all, it appears that the Kauai real estate as well as the Kauai real estate market has been generally effected as well as new
homes sales are down by around 40% from the same
perioed last year.
That is bad because Kauai real estate is typically
stronger than some of the other islands due to often
robust Japanese investment which offsets mainland
economic woes.
But both Kauai real estate and Big Isle real estate
sales are down substantially, raising more concerns.
All in all, however,
it's real estate market has been less turbulent than
some other US regions which have been hit hard by the
subprime mortgage fiasco.