I don't know about you, but the earthquake in Chile and the subsequent Tsunami warnings, made me all the more conscious of weather and how events thousands of miles away can impact our lives.

I am happy to report that everyone's response to the Tsunami warnings here in Hawaii was incredible.  We had 15 hours or so of advanced warning with an excellent notification system-especially when you woke up to sound of the sirens that went off at 6AM!  Hawaiians took the warnings seriously and as a result, the evacuations from the low lying areas went smoothly. 

 

Signs  clearly mark when you are in the tsunami inundation zone.  
As people stocked up for potential shortages, one of the only items that the local stores ran out of was beer!

 

I live at about 1000 feet elevation above Keauhou Bay here in Kona, and like the evacuees who went to higher ground, parking along roadsides and parking lots away from the ocean and set up their BBQ's for one huge tail gate party, we did the same. My wife and I sat on our Lanai, had a glass of wine, and fortunately were able to watch what turned out to be a non-event in Kona.  Respect for the land, water, and weather are a way of life here in Hawaii and I am convinced that is what makes this such a wonderful, safe place to live.

 

The Real Estate Bottom Revisited: For those of you following the home sales here on the Big Island and are waiting for the "bottom", last month's sales figures reinforce my comments that we may have seen the bottom a few months ago. In February, sales for the entire Big Island increased by 10.34% when compared to Feb 2009, and by a tremendous 32.61% year to date! For Kona, February residential sales were up 33% and condo sales tripled from the previous February!!!

More importantly, we saw a  jump in median home prices here in North Kona, from $419,000 a year ago to $438,500 this February. As more of the short sales and foreclosures come off the market, there is a good chance this trend will continue.  

 

New HUD Forms: I have one more item to discuss with everyone buying or selling a home this year, and that is the new Good Faith Estimates and HUD-1 forms that you will be seeing this year.
I recently attended a class given by Wells Fargo and Title Guaranty on “The New Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD-1 Forms”, that went into full effect on January 1, 2010.  I found it very informative and I realized that the new forms may be confusing to Buyers and Sellers alike.

As you are aware, the Real Estate industry has faced unprecedented upheaval and change in the past 1½ years.  We have dealt with over 11,000 new or changed government regulations leading to over 600 credit policy changes. Here is a link to look at the form:http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/respa_hm.cfm 

 

The new HUD statement can be very confusing, in particular when Buyer and Seller are splitting costs for particular line items, like escrow fees, since new accounting procedures are being used to first reflect the entire escrow cost as an expense to the Buyer and then showing as a credit to the Buyer for the portion being paid by the Seller. All the more reason to have a knowlegeable Real Estate Agent help you with the process.

 

If you have questions, about any of these issues, please call or email and I will be glad to help get you the info you need.