Kona Kohala Blog

October has come and gone, that happened fast.  In that 31 days we saw panic in the foreclosure market come and go as well.  We're seeing prices continue to fall but more slowly and the number of sales continues to climb but that too is more slowly.

There are still plenty of good deals out there under the magic $400K price point in both condos and Single Family Residences (SFR's).  In last week's newsletter I mentioned the house in Bayview Estates that had sold for $2.19 million in '05 then resold in '09 for $800K; that will give you an idea of just how much change there has been in prices in Kailua Kona and West Hawaii in general.  We've seen some similar changes in South Kohala at the Waikoloa Beach Resort and at the Mauna Lani.

I'm personally, expecting good news tomorrow.  That news will be a more fiscally conservative house and senate in the new year.  I'm not a big believer in debt and have never understood how you can spend your way out of debt; at some point the chickens come home to roost.

Now Bernanke wants to do a little more "quantitative easing" aka printing more money expecting the banks to loan.  Didn't work the first time what's changed since then?  Nothing really except the banks now have more money.

At least knowing what's going on with the government and the Federal Reserve, whether it makes sense of not, will allow the rest of us to plan accordingly which may get things going again.  We do have to work at becoming more competitive with the rest of the world.  I suppose one way to do that is to continue devaluing the dollar until we're on par with say, India.  Who knows, maybe we'll actually be able to find something "Made in the U.S.A." if that happens.

I've tried boycotting China in my buying and I'll tell you, that's hard.  Try to find those little inexpensive things like spray bottles or shears that aren't made in China.  Impossible.

Anyway, things will change come tomorrow.  Let's hope it's for the better and not for the left.