Articles
September 2005 Newsletter
by Bill Jardine Sep 12, 2005
September is all about getting kids back into school and letting old-timers out on the road. When I was an HPA student I dreaded September as a month when the warm summer days remained outside and my friends and I were forced to be inside. Now I think of it as a perfect month for traveling or taking extra time out in the yard to see that everything is ship shape for the onslaught of Winter.
This September we are all watching with varying degrees of disgust and sympathy the disintegration of society in New Orleans. Be warned, however, that the media is concentrating on the one parish where there is the highest concentration of blacks and indigents, so the television coverage ignores 90% of the disaster … which was an equal opportunity destroyer. We are dealing with a lot of propaganda these days and actually have been for quite some time. Now that we have the internet bloggers to point out the fallacies and biases in media coverage we are gradually moving away from the kind of coverage we are now seeing and toward a larger and more hopeful picture of reality. Most of the people in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi are being great Americans and are helping their neighbors and keeping a stiff upper lip. You just won’t see that in the media.
Another big event this September is the attempt by today’s politicians to get the Akaka Bill to fly. As you may know from past epistles, the Akaka Bill is a very badly written piece of legislation designed to carve out a separate racially-based nation for Hawaiians only. Historical and constitutional arguments are being made by opponents, and emotionally super-charged arguments are being made by supporters. At this point there are many politicians propping up the wings of this ‘spruce goose’ in the hopes that they will be able to run fast enough and far enough to get it airborne. However, it is not all bad to have this going on.
Just ask yourself, “Am I better off being an American or a member of a particular racial group?” Simple question, right? Millions of people all over the earth have decided and are deciding that they are better off being Americans, and your ancestors probably did too. At this point in our civil evolution, race should not have any significance whatsoever.
The housing price “bubble” continues to get more and more attention as energy prices soar, the government debt increases and the stock market is beginning to look under-priced. I read about anything I can get on this subject, since we represent only property buyers and must be responsible in our advice to them. Best we can tell, the market is chilling off fast, although there are still tons of people putting their houses on the market at very high prices in the hopes that the super run-up in prices will continue. I think it is likely that higher energy prices will push plane tickets up into the stratosphere, and tourism will suffer as a result. At the same time a poor couple that is working three jobs to own their new house will find one of those jobs gets eliminated. Their impossible budget will have all ready taken a big hit at the gas pumps, of course. A substantial percentage of the homes bought now-a-days are bought with very little, if any, money down. The poor couple may be one of those who have really nothing to lose by defaulting on their mortgage and taking a justified bankruptcy proceeding. After all, they can rent the same house for less than half of what they are paying each month to own it!
When this occurs, the psychology of the market place will change from “There’s always a greater foo” , to “Cut your losses!”
Retirement housing should remain strong in spite of turmoil in the market place. The expected demand for Hawaii retirement housing simply cannot be met by new construction, so for every retiree who has to pull in his financial horns, there are likely to be a few more who don’t.
The demand for Waimea will not slack as it may for other areas in Hawaii. Why? Waimea has a unique combination of upcountry living, hospital care, educational opportunities and classic small town ambiance. If you ever wanted a multi-generation home, this is the place to build it. Period.
Call us for opportunities that make sense and aren’t all just hype!
William N. Jardine
