Articles
Market update – Summer 2006
by Bill Jardine Aug 21, 2006
Waimea is really quite a remarkable place when you stop to think about it. We have had growth here, but it has been the good kind rather than the stinky kind that everyone else seems to get. We have a new-ish shopping center, a great hospital, and the organized development of Parker Ranch properties. We have two good private schools with lots of volunteers interested in making them even better, and, of course, our astronomical community is second to none in the world. Not bad for a cow town!
Having said all that, we are still populated with normal people, and Waimea people suffer the same tides that move people everywhere. We have had lots of folks thinking and hoping that their properties are worth quite a lot more than they really are, and we have had quite a few speculators who were willing to bet real money that prices would climb fast and steady … forever. Their real money is now gone and will remain gone until the next big push in a couple of years.
Prices all over town are falling and especially so in that odd area between worker housing and upper middle class properties … say $600K to $900K. We are seeing way too many condominium units coming on the market in the resorts, and some of them are really nice, but they are begging for buyers, since there are just so darn many of them. It is one of those times when you’d do well to locate the good units and buy them as cheaply as possible with the idea of holding them until the Boomers show up in a couple of years.
Once the Middle East conflict gets under control as well as conservation measures take a bite out of oil demand, we expect to see energy prices falling back to reasonable levels. The simple truth is that we are financing the Islamic fascists each time we stop at the gas pump, and once that sinks in Americans are going to change their behavior. So the future looks bright to me. How about you?
Imua,
Bill Jardine
(808) 885-6061
bill@jardinerealty.com
