Kona Kohala Blog

Lots to choose from, no land pun intended.  In November of '07 there were 402 Single Family Residences (SFR's) and 364 condos for sale in North Kona.  In September of '08 it had dropped to 388 SFR's and 349 condos.  Four months later we have 468 SFR's and 403 condos for sale.

This gives us an inventory or supply of 24.5 months of SFR's and 26.3 months of condos meaning, if no new property came on the market it would take that long to sell existing properties.  An inventory of 6 months is considered a balanced market.

One year ago, in February of '08 we had an inventory of 31.67 months of SFR's and 20.25 months for condos.  One contributing factor is the number of properties that are falling out of escrow meaning that for one reason or another they are not closing even after beginning the process.  The biggest cause of that are our old friends, the banks.  Banks are waiting as they go through the underwriting process a month or so before coming back to the borrower and saying, "Sorry, you no longer qualify for that loan."

If the administration would work harder on getting the banks to loan all that tax payer money they've been given, given being the key word here, we might see the country start to move out of these doldrums we're in.

Instead of trying to save all these mortgages by forcing lenders to take less through modification programs they should be assisting the buyers.  Already we've seen those people who have been assisted in their mortgages by "cram downs", forced loan modifications, getting back into trouble within a few months of having been "saved".  This program is not going to work.

Obama should be looking at ways to help buyers buy these properties that are being lost by people who can not afford them.  It is not fair to be forcing banks and their share holders, to take less than the contract that was signed by everyone calls for.  Let's take this funny money the boys in D.C. are printing and use it to help qualified buyers get loans so they can buy the homes being lost.  At least this way we've got people who will pay off the mortgages not those who will default on them holding the note.

Comments anyone?  I'm pretty sure the answers are going to have to come from we the people.  Those nit wits we have in elected office haven't got a clue how hard we've worked to earn the money they so freely give to people who have already proven they can't run a business or budget properly so they can maintain the payments on their homes.  The people I talk to, people who work for a living and honor their debts have great ideas.  They're the same ideas they employ in running their own homes and businesses and keep them in their homes and in business.   aloha