Big Island Real Estate Minute

Aloha. Hey, it's Julie Zemelow, 365 Hawaii. And I am from Real Broker and I'm with Lance Owens with Luva Real Estate. Great. And that is your September West Hawaii market update. And Lance and I were having a little side chat about what is happening with the market. You guys are, this, this is a shifting market. You guys need to stick with this one. It's such a shifting market that we decided to have a beer in the middle of the afternoon. So, uh, for people who are on live Facebook, uh, we decided to make this a little bit earlier in the afternoon so you can catch this live. Uh, cause I was joking. I said winter is coming for all of you guys in Michigan and places where you don't want to have to have another cold winter. So you want to start thinking about buying now so you can make sure that you have a nice, happy, warm winter time that you're happy in Hawaii. Uh, but we come back to our Ola experience. Yeah. Today our fantasy, um, uh, is Ola brew. Uh, and they're sponsoring us in their Ma'a today. Okay. So Ma'a means used to, accustomed to, and habituated. And that means you're used to lower prices in the summer. And you got to hear what's going to happen west of the fall. Uh, but Eric's going to pop in here. Eric Seamless is our cameraman. Say hi. There you go. He's part of team 365. Okay. Here's to better days ahead. Okay. All right. Okay. So, uh, let's like have a kind of like a kind of like tell, tell them a little bit about the numbers and what you've done, what you're doing with maybe like adding them to elevate what they're going to learn today. So I've been bringing you guys the numbers to a certain way for the last, well, I've been doing my written report for, for 20 years now using a different, uh, system. So I've just changed up my system and we're going to see how we like it or not. I, I like how it comes through in the presentation, what it looks like, you know, instead of, I always been a guy that kind of looked at the, uh, black and white numbers. So these black and white numbers are what we get from our multiple listing service every month. Yeah. And it's just kind of plain. And so now I'm using it through RPR, which is realtor property resources, which is, it's an awesome tool and they've added, it's gotten a new features recently on it. So I started using it more and telling our membership about it. And I started liking the report more, but it's a little bit different because what I've been doing is reporting. Uh, what they do is they report on zones, not zip codes. So all of the reports have been, you always hear me talk about West Hawaii. And so that has been North Kona and that's how I could pull the report. Well now, to the best of my knowledge, I cannot pull it by North Kona. I can pull up by zip codes. Uh, I could do the whole Hawaii County, uh, in, but we're one County, you know, just so you guys know, you know, this guy's the whole Island is Hawaii County. So that way you would get the Puna numbers with the, you know, high end resort community. And then also down here in Kona, so that would totally not be a very good number to pull from. Man. My favorite thing is that we, we live, uh, in Hawaii County on Hawaii Island in the state of Hawaii. So, so a lot of Hawaii on Hawaii surrounded by more Hawaii. So, uh, we were able to not pull the whole Island before, you know, I could pull it, like say North Kona and that's where we got numbers from. So these numbers are gonna be a little bit different, but it's going to be interesting because I'm pulling it by the zip code, nine, six, seven, four, zero. And it is, uh, it's going to really give me all the condos running up, down the leaky drive and things like that. So it's good on that. I'm trying to figure out how to pull Halua Loa into it because I'm, there's not condos really up there. There's some, but, um, I, I need it more for the homes. But some of those homes up really in Halua Loa proper are sitting on land too. Which is not completely apples to apples on the neighborhoods down here in Kona. So maybe you'll get some better information. Yeah, we'll see. So you guys are gonna hear a little bit different reporting on the numbers and how it sets. So, uh, jump right into it. Jump right in. Jump right in. Let's start with single family homes. Single family homes. The good news. The good news. Kailua Kona's housing market. So we always talk about absorption rate. We're not going to use absorption rate anymore today because we've got a sliding scale here and we, it shows us difference, more visual and easier to see. But I'm going to go over it one last time maybe. Okay. So, uh, absorption rate is how many months of inventory that you have versus what's on the market and how much is sold. And that tells you if it's a buyer's or seller's market. So we have looked at anything between 15 and 20% is a stable market. Above 20% is a seller's market. Below 15% is a buyer's market. Now we've got this beautiful sliding scale and we do have this on, um, on, in hard writing too. I do a blog on it every month, but it's interesting. So we are, and we've kind of said this, we're in a seller's market when it comes to homes, uh, here in Kona. So we've got the ideal amount of inventory is six months inventory. So we're sitting at three and a half months inventory. So that is telling us clearly it's a seller's market. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting when we used to say the zero to 60, it feels like when you're going 60 and all of a sudden you have to slip slow down that you go, Oh, it's so slow. It seems as if there's open house signs all over the place because it seems that we have a lot of homes on the market, but because we had nothing for two or three years, right? So now it's just kind of like coming back on, but it could be almost twice as much more for like a, a normal market. Uh, no, our inventory is low. Cause remember, we've always talked about that. I do remember we used to have 160, a hundred and 170 somewhere in there, you know, on homes was what we should have. And we got, I think 130 right now. So there was there from a long time ago when you said that there was a ton of houses on the market. Yes. Yeah. Cause I mean before you guys, we literally had like what 3540 homes on the market sometimes. Like that was really bad. It was weird though. Um, there was a lot on the market, but they were an escrow. They were, they were pending. So they were coming on for a day or two and then they were going pending. And then, so it didn't show his, his inventory of what's active. So it's kind of, um, it's interesting, you know, so there, there's all those dynamics really look to see what, what, when it was a normal market looking at how many were on the market back then. So, okay. So, so that puts us at, at, uh, again, well into, you probably can't see this on the camera, but you can see where the little bar is that is on the written part. So three and a half months there. Maybe over in the new tube land, I'll get you guys a picture of this to put up on the screen so you can see it. Oh yeah. I think it's just have our screen guy or our guy do it. Uh, sold to list price, 96.6% median days, uh, on the market is at 52. We had a median price of 1.135. And I like how this new report, we'll brief paragraph here. Just gave us some bullet points on things. So inventory keeps dropping. So it's down 6% in the past month and 22% down from last year. Fewer choices means more competition for what's available. Pricing. Homes are closing at about 96% of list price. Sellers are holding firm. So don't expect steep discounts days in the market. 62 days. Homes aren't gone overnight, but the good ones don't sit around long. Medium price at 1.135. That's your benchmark for planning a purchase. I like the way they said. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was interesting. And it's a new report. I like the way that it comes out. And on that, we also show the graphs of everything. Yeah. Yeah. That's good there. Okay. Going to jump over to condos. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And just so you guys know, um, uh, when, uh, we were talking about pool on the estates the other day, um, one came on and sold within three days, three or four days, because it was priced correctly and there's still buyer demand out there. Yeah. So there you go. Yeah. I mean this report, black and white numbers show it, you know, and if you guys, we always say, you know what, what's the houses on sale for. Um, and you said 96%. So that's a 4% you can get a deal 44% off. I'm not going to rush over to Kmart for that. So yeah. Yeah. So on the condos, different story. Now using this new, this new reporting method, it narrows it down to just the stuff right down here in Kilo Kona, not all of North Kona. And it shows right now that it is a buyer's market significant severe, severe, severe, severe buyers, wildfire buyers market. Yeah. Pause your screen and zoom in later on. So, uh, what it looks like is our months of inventory is 14.29%. So that's a lot. There's a lot. Six months is balanced. Homes are at three in a month. Okay. So you guys, I'm feeling especially a little bit like crunchy because I have a condo for sale and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this condo. It is a beautiful condo. Greatest TVR has an ocean view remodeled the whole thing. And it's been on the market for about 70 days. And there is like, it just makes me so frustrated. We have marketed the crap out of this thing. And, um, it's just trying to compete with 17 months. 17, 14, 14 months of inventory. There's 10 condos for sale at Alihi Villas right now, just in Alihi Villas. And so it just seems that, um, there was a level of, it's time to sell my condo in the last year or so we've had, because the maintenance fees went up so much. You know that, I mean, that's really, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I'm looking at possibly being on a national task force for, for, um, insurance issues. So, uh, I'm not, I'm going to talk to the people, um, next week with NAR themselves. And I don't, we'll see where that goes. So I don't know. Yeah. It's a, it'll be a new, it'll be a new task force that they put together, but we've been doing this with flood insurance for a decade or more. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. But just so you guys know, because you can show, it does make a difference that Alihi Lawny, there was about 14 condos in there and they kept losing money and losing money. And then they reset their HOA fees so that the insurance costs cost and come down and they should pass that on to the people in the condo complex. So their HOA fees came down about $150 a month. Yeah. And then all the condos in that complex have basically sold. I know it's incredible because that's, and it's part of that why also recently passed a law to stabilize insurance. They, this law was actually created back during, right after hurricane Aniki because all the insurance companies left after that. And I remember, uh, there was like a recording fee on every, every home that sold a mortgage recording fee. And, um, that got kind of controversial because people with mortgage has to, they have to have a hundred percent insurance on their condos mortgage. They won't lend you money on it. Right. So, so I don't think this was right back then, you know, but they felt that, well, the people at the mortgage need to pay for it then. Right. So the people with cash didn't have to pay. So the people with cash didn't have to pay. And, and yet their building was covered a hundred percent and, uh, and it was part of that. So anyway, that insurance stabilized after they created this law that helped, um, guarantee these, some of these insurance policies. So it was a way that they, it worked well. Uh, they stopped after about five years and the, uh, the funds have been sitting there in a bank account. And, uh, it's interesting because for years that was back in like in the mid 90s, 92 I think was when Hurricane Nikki hit and then the law took effect in probably 93 or four. Okay. And they collected money, I think till about 2000 or something like that. And then they just shut it off. So they, they've been trying to find a way to rob that bank account and all that money sitting there rainy day fund and they'd never have been able to figure that out. So, uh, good news is that money's still sitting there. So it's up, but they did figure out a way to keep the interest. Yeah. I see a little bit of money for Hawaii state there. Yeah. Um, but then the, um, but when, okay, so the HOA fees went up, people said insurance went up 300% in many, many cases. Okay. But let's talk about rising interest rates too. Right. First of all, people had to get mortgages. Right. And then, um, the crazy it's been happening this year, right. With the Canadian saying, you know, we're putting a boycott on us and everything else. And so it just seems that right now people are kind of like this, uh, on the, on the buying a condo experience. However, interest rates did go down to 6.2% this week on the jobs market report. Um, and there are deals to be had my friends. Um, so, um, if you are considering buying a condo, especially cause I have to say, August is usually a very slow time for the housing market in Hawaii anyway. Right. Yeah. So we're pulling off August numbers to give you guys a September report. So, um, I would like to see and I'm gonna ask him as soon as he finishes the report, what you think is going to happen, but, uh, let's see. Okay. Here we go. All right. So we're going to jump into the inventory trends and the inventory trends are down 28%, uh, from last month. Uh, so inventory went down almost a third, almost three 30%. So you guys, people bought condos, or else they pulled them off their insurance rates. Uh, are, we're seeing changes in insurance rates coming down a little bit. I don't know of any other complex that's passed that onto their, to their owners yet other than elite Ilani. And we saw what happened there. I mean, that's a perfect example of what happens. People were able to still make it work. So, uh, so that, that helps with that. And, uh, inventory, we said pricing, they're on sale at 95.05%. And that's just, you know, Michael went, went houses are 4% off and condos are what? Five, four and a half. Yeah. Yeah. So we have five, five, five. So it's not like these, these prices are dropping exponentially. It's just people are just choosing not to buy at all. Yeah. Yep. Just so you know. And how long did you say you had your house on your condo in the 70 days so far? Okay. Pace medium days in the market is 65. Okay. So help me, help me sell this condo. You're five days overdue. So we just dropped the price to five 69 if you guys want a one line, really great conduit and leaky villas. There you go. And the medium price was five 32, five. Okay. Mine's a little higher than that, but okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This media and that's for the, it's included things, you know, off, uh, not oceanfront. Yours is an oceanfront. Oceanview. Yeah. Yeah. But is that oceanfront complex? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So those hold their value better. Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. And then, um, so buyers have an opportunity right now, but the window may not stay open forever. Inventory can shift quickly in Kona. There you go. If you're ready to start exploring what's out there, I'd be glad to walk you through the numbers and neighborhoods. What do you do for a living? I sell real estate. I sell real estate. This is just a hobby. I like to be a seller for one, one condo right now. This is just our hobby. There you go. Here you go. Yeah. In fact, um, uh, with the amount of movement from last month, cause we looked actually at volume of sales, which is like, you know, just like just dollar volume, volume actually increased last month, you guys by 70%. So all those people who went in there and sliced up all those, uh, condos that added to the volume. So with the closing of that window, that might be happening as people are saying, you know, now's the time as the interest rates are going down. And I know for a fact there are quite a few of you guys, you have two things going on. You are considering retiring and you want to get into this condo market so that you have a second home or you're thinking you can't take the cold anymore. I want a great opportunity right now to come and live in Kona. And you know, it's a little scary. I know we'll have, uh, Travis on to talk about mortgage rates and stuff, but with the jobs report coming out, how long is the interest going to stay low? Well, it's interesting because you know, the, um, just so you guys know, um, the fed is meeting, I think on the 16th, between the 14th and the 16th, which is coming up pretty soon here. Um, and maybe, I know I haven't read anything, but I'm just thinking that he missed it last time because the jobs report was bad, but he'd already set the, he wasn't going to lower the price. Right? Well, now another bad jobs report. I'm wondering if they would cut even further than the 0.25% that they thought they were going to cut to maybe bring it down a half a point. I mean like a 0.5 percentage point, which then would maybe take it down. Cause I, I saw a, a, um, um, a housing wire headline, um, that what would happen if we can get below 6% because we did hear if it was below 6%, some of these, these home sellers, um, would be able to get it out of their really great mortgages and decided they might sell their house so that they can go on to a different pace. And so then the inventory would get moved around again. But right now, um, I just found this out today in 2022, 4.1 million homes sold in America, which was the lowest in like years. Then the year after that, again, 4.1, another year that not a lot of homes sold. And then this last, this, the year, this year right now is stacking at 4.2. So just three years, just not really a lot of real estate moving. So maybe if we got that mortgage rate down a little bit. That's, you know, and that's what I hear too. I want to go to the national convention and things like that. Even at the Inman convention, uh, you know, everybody says the magic number is going to be once it hits below six, even if it's 599, it's going to be where people start moving, moving inventory and doing things mentally that's stuck in their head. Right. So let us know in the comments, you guys, if you think about dropping those, um, if you want to sell your house, if it drops from a little 5%. I don't have a comment, but I got a lot of people watching. I just thought I'd give them a shout out. Uh, Dean Keeler is watching. Peterson is watching. Kevin is watching. Hi, Nancy. Yeah. Is that Kerry Kerry? Uh, our Kerry? No. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Hi Kerry. Uh, Kevin Peters. Sorry. That's our Kevin too. Hi Denise. Okay. Hey, there we go. Okay. All solid people who own homes already. Well, we're talking to you guys. Would you sell if the, uh, the interest rates have dropped to a under a 6%? So the Dean just bought a condo. So no, Dean's like this. What do you mean the condo prices are dropping? I just bought it. It's okay. You're going to hang on. It's gonna be fine. It's all going to be fine. They're all good. Yeah. Um, okay. What else we got? That's it. I was going to just talk about, uh, some latest news on some of the, um, uh, vacation rentals. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's talk about that. Yeah. Let's talk. So kind of, I, I jumped out of my seat when I was watching this on the news the other day, but Honolulu is, they have a new, uh, tool to use against illegal vacation, uh, rental owners. And they got this off of, they were looking at the at the laws and how things work when people are kind of a lot of illegal gambling, uh, houses in on Oahu. So yeah. And they come in and they raid these places. Sometimes they foreclose on them. Sometimes, uh, the owners claim, we don't know what's going on there. We didn't know you can't take our home. They're renting it. And I think that's probably what a lot of it happens. You know, I mean, you're going to go rent a home and do it and then move out in six months and open up a new gambling house. Yeah. So you just keep moving it. Yeah. There's a lot of gaming machines and stuff. You always see it on the raids. Yeah. That ain't happening here in Kona. They've done a very good job of hiding it if so. But it's interesting. They would start contacting the mortgage companies and saying, Hey, your property is being used illegally. Yeah. So now they're doing that. What? Call the mortgage. What they're calling the mortgage companies for illegal vacation rentals saying your property is being used illegally. And that means a lot of people they're out there and default if they're default and called alone to be done in 30 days. Wow. And so, and I, that happened here on the big Island, um, maybe two years ago, I think, uh, somebody had, had gotten a loan for the home and they turned it into like an Airbnb so that they could afford it. Right. Well, somehow their bank found out and the bank called their loan, gave him 30 days. Now. So, okay. Wait, wait, just so we know if the bank says, call him alone. You got 30 days to pay off $450,000. Usually you can't come up with that kind of money. So is it immediately thrown into foreclosure? Uh, after that they, they, it starts the foreclosure proceedings. Yeah. So this person had to go out and get a commercial loan and they got in at a really low rate, you know, and now they're, you know, they were probably at 3% or something. Now they're at a seven and a half percent commercial loan. Uh, no longer is it, is the business profitable when you're, when they're paying it all out in that money. Wow. And, uh, and they really think that that's, what's going to happen here. So they're calling these banks and saying your home, this list is a second home. Uh, your, your buyers that shows us on their tax records that it's a second home and they're renting it out and making money off this. And the banks are going to call the loan because they don't want to lose it. When the government comes in and takes back a property for something, then it is usually sits there for a while. Well, and the government, uh, liens, uh, take precedence over the bank liens. So no matter if the banks are in first and second position, they get bumped to second, third position when it happens. So banks do not want to, uh, don't not want to lose a home in a foreclosure. Wow. So do you think the banks then would send out notices to all of their people who are second homeowners and say, you better not be using this, give them a, give them like a heads up. I doubt it. Really? They would just go and just, well, I don't know if they're going to give them a chance to defend themselves. No, no. But give him a chance to like, well, the county, the county is sending them proof saying here's, you know, here's, we, we've given, we've issued a notice of, of, um, breaking the law. Right. Yeah. We've issued this notice. Here's a proof we had in there submitting it to the banks. So that's only happening in Honolulu. But we start doing what the other islands do. You know, if it's proven that works well and they've been using it for the illegal gambling is what led me into that whole story. Wow. Uh, so it's been successful. So this is going to be a, it's going to be a game changer. Yeah. So I'm interested. Here comes our inventory. Jeez. But you know what? The Honolulu has a hell of a lot more homes are doing this in our, our thing. I think a lot of people, um, what, five, was it four years ago got their hands slapped about trying to hold a single family home open in a residential neighborhood and keep it as a vacation. 2018 the law changed on that. So I think that a lot of those people. So if you're doing it legally, you're not going to get in trouble. Yeah. If you've got your partner, right. Right. Um, but you know, they're, they just changed the laws here on hosted, unhosted. It hasn't gone into effect yet. Uh, in fact, the, the, uh, video, they just did a, um, informational video on it on Friday. We were talking about it at the broker's meeting today. People that went to it said the video was terrible. They didn't learn anything from it. We'll post a link to it. But, but they said the Q and a on the page on the tar page. So if you've been following the tar transient accommodation rentals page, they've now changed the name again. It was STV ours and it became T a R's and now it's T something. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. And they're trying to line it with the tax code. So they're trying to call anything under 180 days short term rental now. So it's a mess. I'm a, if your plans are to come here in and do an illegal vacation rental, change your plans because they're going to get you. They're really coming down on this stuff. You guys, in fact, um, um, you know, a long time ago, we should joke about the permitting in East Hawaii. Like, Oh, they're never going to come after those people in a way. Are they ever going to do that? Well, now they're doing it because it costs, you know, the more money that they see that they could be kicking and they're realizing they're not taking it. Um, because there are people in used to why they're basically creating, trying to like little, uh, little, you know, little pods to do Airbnbs out in the middle of the lava field. And they're like, Oh, you know what? That's not permitted. And now they're saying, you know, we're going to put some teeth in this and we're going to tell you, you can't do it anymore. So yeah. So if you're the person that decided that that was a good idea two or three years ago, when you're sitting on a, you know, three rentals in your house, that might not be clear. They're not doing that on the big Island yet. So just be aware. Yeah. But that's your plan. You might want to think about that. Yeah. I'm going to be staying at the Hapuna beach hotel this, uh, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday at a, uh, they called HSEC meeting. So it'll be with all the County people from the whole state. So if you use the word Lance Owens, you can swim in the pool for free. They put in a printer top. But there you'll know more information to hear more information that's coming out for this. I just got back Friday from the, um, the Hawaii congressional meeting, H H C P O 2025, but they have some really good conference, uh, talks on, uh, what, what's defined as a local, uh, uh, person, you know, I mean, not local person, but a local home buyer, you know, and, and what defines it and what, what, how do we make it where they can afford it? You know, so what is a local home buyer, you know? So like in terms of, um, almost like a de-restriction that that's what people are putting on this, this actual, okay, well, this has been coming up a long time that somebody has to have lived on the island for at least 10 years before they can buy the house. That's what they're talking about. Right. Cause that would make you local 15 years, 30 years, whatever the heck. Yeah. There's no good definition for it yet. And it's arbitrary at best. Yeah. Right. Uh, I do think though, it was just me, um, because I'm all about affordable housing and I keep hearing people out and saying, we have to make it fair. And I, and then their idea of fair, I'm like, oh, well, America and capitalism does not state that you can tell people they can't buy houses because they're from off island or they're from a different country. Um, and of course people think that's not fair. So I said that there's a thing called deed restriction housing that they can make the rules and then they build it. Right. But, um, we have a friend that said what they should do is, uh, if there's a single family home for sale, right. That the state should just buy it and then give it to a Hawaiian person so they can bring people from Hawaii who had left the island to come back. And I'm like, that would take like the level of like, oh my God. So with the deed restriction housing, easiest way. Yeah, exactly. Um, and you know, they're building 115, what's it called? No, a hundred and I mean, 1,600 homes down in the bottom of Costco. They're using that OCO well that they just opened up. Yeah. They could do deep restriction housing down there. They could, uh, if the County got into the home building or did something for the builders to incentivize, incentivize them for that. So the interest in what they tried to pass this last year was a voluntary deed restrictions. So if you want to say, Hey, I don't want my home going to an investor. Right. I want somebody that lives here, works or contributes to my community and uh, and I'll sell it to them. And so you could go in and give a voluntary deed restriction and this County would, would pay you. Really? Um, I, the people that were trying to get it passed did not do their homework on it. They just went and they, they looked at it and kind of said this is great as working in Vail, Colorado. I think it was. Okay. And so they were going after that model, but they couldn't answer a lot of the questions from the legislators. Okay. So basically you incentivize the seller by basically having the County kind of pay them a little something, something to hold their house for somebody who's actually local versus like an investor or someone coming off Island. Yep. Okay. So, so, so I would say I'm going to, I want to, I'm going to go to the County, say I'm going to sell my house to somebody that lives here with local. Right. Who works here? Who has a full time job. Yeah. They have to work here, uh, over half the year. Okay. And it can't be remote. They can't be working for Apple in California and uh, remotely they have to physically be working here on the Island. And I, they didn't have the numbers down because they didn't do their homework enough for them. But again, they know they, they were the ones putting on this session. So they've been doing their homework. Okay. They've gotten smarter about it and they had some good information on it. So I'm going to use numbers here that I'm just pulling out of the air. Okay. They didn't have these numbers there. Let's say I'm selling my house for a million and the County will come in and say, well, we're going to give you a hundred thousand dollars, uh, to sell it for 900. And then, uh, in, but we're going to put a deed restriction on it, that it has to be, but they want it in per perpetuity. So that's kind of a thing. So now, so that person, so that whoever buys it now also has to be local. They got the discount when they bought it. There's no more money exchanging hands, but it theory is, is that they're going to have a limited pool of buyers. So it will keep the price down on that house. And it will again, go to somebody that lives and works there. Yeah. They did something like that in Santa Cruz when I was working at the association of realtors there. Um, they basically had little townhouses and they made them deed restricted and they sold them on the market value of like $250,000 to live in Santa Cruz. Um, and they wanted to go to teachers, firefighters, first responders, the whole thing. Right. Yeah. And it was deed restricted by those income. And those, those, you had to be one of those people working in that profession to be able to get the house. Right. And then that way it would stay into that thing in perpetuity. So if you sold it, you could take the money that you put into the house, but you couldn't take like it was still always deed restricted. So the price would be held down for ever. Yeah. And there's ones where, uh, there's some of the affordable housing units down in, in downtown Honolulu and stuff that have been converted over from office buildings and things like that. And they have made it to where you have to be local to buy it. There's so many of them had to be affordable housing and it was, uh, it was pretty successful. But what's happened is some of the people by the time, cause you bought into it three years ago, they're just now in December, they're getting released. Right. So they, I think they were buying into them for, uh, I think, uh, 400, 450, I think it was a price. Yeah. 450,000. They're praising it like seven 50,000 right now and they're getting their loan on it now. So they got this built in equity, but they can't sell it for a few years. So, uh, the interesting thing is that some of them have a, uh, or it's graduated how much money you can make off of it. So say it's a 10 year deed restriction. Okay. Uh, if you sell it in year one, you don't get any of the profit. You just, you know, whoever gave you the deed restriction who gets it. If you sell it in year two, you might get 10% year three, you might get 20% of the profit. Yeah. Yeah. From it. And I think that's how the Santa Cruz thing was. As long as you stayed, the more, even a coffee. Yeah. Cause we still need people to build equity. Yeah. If you don't build equity, then people like this, the people who don't like this kind of thing. Um, what's the incentive to keep the house maintained? If when you leave, you get nothing when you leave. Right. Right. So you have to give them, yeah, you're just getting it for cheap rent. Right. Exactly. But you have to maintain the house. So, um, it went, there's one thing I say about this, this whole experience, you guys it's called complex and vexing. But I will say I saw in the newspaper today, or at least in housing, why everything, um, CBDG, community development block grants from the federal government to help build affordable housing. Um, there's a, um, new thing in the Senate. It's bipartisan to make it easier for counties to access these block grants from the federal government to build affordable housing. So that's good news. And they are, has been there rallying. That's what we go. And, uh, um, we'll go June this year when we went in. Yeah. We need to figure out something. Yeah. Right. Cause like we're talking about this and I'm talking about that. There has to be something it's helping because what right now what's happening is not tenable for keeping societies healthy in any of these communities, especially in resort communities. Yeah. Right. And one of the interesting things that we were lobbying for there was the, um, I can't remember the bill number, so I'm sorry, but it is a, uh, a way to, um, it's a, it's a federal rule on changing local building ordinances and the federal, the feds can't come in and do that. But if this law passes, it incentivizes the local counties to come in and change some of their, their zoning. Yeah. Yeah. To make it easier to build, quicker to build, easier to piss off your neighbors. Not in my backyard. Um, but yeah, we had, we had to start building multi unit housing in neighborhoods. Yeah. Each County has its own, um, zoning laws and stuff. Yeah. And so what you can do on the big Island, you can't do on a Wahoo and vice versa. So it's interesting, you know, we don't have any, anything for building duplexes or anything here really, you know, it's just so hard. Yeah. And just so you guys know, this is one of the values of living in West Hawaii is that because of our septic issue and our cesspools, um, to build a ADU unit, you have to be able to prove that you've upgraded your septic system and it has to be able to hold an extra amount for the person that you put in your backyard on an ADU. And they decided, correct me if I'm wrong, but like 90% of the houses in Kona could not do that. They just can't, they can't do it. There just doesn't make sense because either the house is restricted in terms of size, like look at our cesspools down there somewhere, trying to come in here and dig that out and put a septic in. Yeah. You can't even get a tractor down there anymore to dig that stuff out. So a lot of people will just say, I'm not doing it. And so it works for somebody like in rural, like someplace else, like Kahala and look at me, I'm on three acres. Yeah. And we've got the big Island back when they were creating all of these property districts, you know, from urban to, um, agriculture and commercial and all these different things. The big Island has so much land. It's like, okay, you know, let's make this, this area, uh, urban and let's do this. And, and this, what do we do with the rest of the stuff? I'll just call it ag. 78% of the Island. Yeah. So that was like in 1976. So, uh, you cannot build an ADU on ag land. So I have, uh, three acres, a huge cesspool or septic tank. I knew when we built the house, I argued with my wife over there, we don't need one that big. I said, you never know. Maybe when we sell it or something, it might have a benefit. So we got the biggest one we could get. And, uh, and we can't put an ADU on our property because we're on ag land. So there's, there's some ag get around work arounds, you know, but it's, it's, it's the people in, in charge of this or in Honolulu, they don't realize how much land we got here. You know, they hear about ag land getting used up on a Wahoo and they freak out. Right. Yeah. But I mean, my land's not, I live in a rain forest. It's, um, it's not, it's not arable. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. And then to pass this law and there's another roadblock too. And they passed that ADU law this year too. So the cesspool septic is one of them. Another one is water. Oh yeah. The water. Then you have water credits. Yeah. You need a water credit. You need to be able to do that. Water credits. You guys, another one of these vexing and complex. That's why it's so hard to build things on this Island, you guys. Um, but that's one of the things that people have left. Right. And that's another reason why, and I mean, again, for realtors, that's not always the best thing, but for the rest of us also, who don't like traffic, um, we're not going to get a lot of building on this Island, especially here in West twine. Now they might put those houses in below Costco, but they actually have room to do that. There's a four lane highway. Now it's down there. It's going to be connected to a wastewater treatment plant. It's a master plan, like concept down there where they can actually do all the stuff, but up this way and where we are like, you know, and where you guys know, if you have, you see all, especially those with her and Facebook, our highways this big and they can't, they can't expand it because you'd be off the road into a variety of condo complexes and everything else. So we just can't really increase our infrastructure very much from here upward. So I just don't see them all of a sudden deciding they're good. And in fact, they stopped the building of a neighborhood behind between a pool on the estates and, um, uh, Ali. He locked up at Kona C villas or Kona C. No Kona business. No. And so, um, so we've just basically not that they said it, but we basically do have a moratorium on housing because there's just not any more room to build it. No, they can't handle the traffic. Yeah. So many things, water, sewer, all the issues. So what we have here is basically what we're going to keep here. And that's what also, if you do that, it keeps the housing prices stable because we're not building a whole bunch of new houses. So, you know, that was interesting too. When the media was out last week, uh, the HCPO is, uh, they were asking many of the, the, um, people that were, that were putting on a lot of the, uh, classes, uh, sessions and a majority of people, for the most part thought that we can build ourselves out of this housing problem. You know, once you start building these new ones, it's going to open up. And then, and you hero had a good report on exactly, uh, they actually followed a trail all the way back on one of the affordable units in, uh, in Honolulu to all the different home sales. Oh, because one person was able to then get a leg up. This person came off a couch of somebody's to hear. And it was really interesting. So, you know, there was no big data farm for that. They just picked one and they were able to trace it back to that. So it was really interesting. But when you talk to the County planners, every single one of them on stage, so you have the counties and then you had the state planner there. Can we build our way out of this mess? No, no, no, no, no, no. So, uh, it's interesting. People's vision and stuff can see ways to build out of it. They can see how it affects things. And, uh, it's hard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, um, my daughter's going to be 24 in two weeks. Wow. Her ability to buy a single family home on this Island. Not there. Yeah. Yeah. My son too. I mean, he's 24 now and, and he's not coming back to buy a house. No, no. So, uh, but everyone who's watching, they've got grandkids or children, I guess, who would say I live in Portland or I live in, you know, the Bay area, same thing's happening to them too. This is like a nationwide experience. And so, um, so vote and, uh, know that society gets better when people feel like there's a, there's a chance of a life ahead where they home, they get a home to buy. You know, it's funny cause I had a conversation with my son the other day about voting and you know, a lot of people feel that we really don't have a say in the big, the big races. Right. But, but what you got to remember is you do, and it's when you're voting because all of these big guys, except for the one in there right now have started out in some typically, uh, at a council level to a mayor, to a governor and work their way up. So who you vote for today is your council member could be your next mayor who could be your next governor and make a difference in vote and voting is important because it's a, yep. So can I segue into something else that way? Public testimony is good too. Okay. Lance doesn't know I'm about to say this, but here's a story. So you guys know I've been working on the parking issue, right? So we actually grabbed a beer for this. He's not going to like this. So we wrote the bill and it went to the County Council woman who then had to give it to the County lawyer who then went through our bill and then she went and she basically line by line of what was going to work was wasn't going to work. Uh, questions about what's reasonable and fair and everything else. So they got back to us and I looked at the edits and the good news guys is they kept the thing that Lance is going to say, are you crazy? Cap the fee at $2 an hour capping the fees. I know he doesn't like this. I know, I know, but it is a regulation for only downtown and they can regulate the downtown district because it's in a special zone, an economic zone that is failing because the parking problem, right? And they have to actually follow the statutes that were already in place where they actually have to put on a sign what it's going to cost you to park in that parking lot so they can't do the surge pricing crap that they're doing on the QR codes and crap. And if they do the flat parking and the sign that says it's cost $2 an hour, maybe max $12 a day, um, then you don't have to use your Hawaii driver's license on an unsecured QR code because it'll be $2 for everybody if you live here or if you don't live here. And that way it takes away some of that technology, like breach of information and some of the older people who'd say, why do I have to put my phone up there? Can I just pay? So it might work out. Okay, so, so what's the last going to say to this? Okay, so it's okay. So I'm paying way too much for a beer when I go down there. It used to be two bucks a beer and it's up to $10 a beer now. Right. Can I get the cap put on? I know you're going to say that, but get this. Um, a, first of all, we have to obviously pass this like through the, the, the County. Um, I know. And, and the mayor said maybe the, you know, they're going to try and fight back, but I'll tell you guys, um, they could also say after three of the, um, parking management company. Oh, okay. Um, because maybe they, they said, and maybe this is gonna be one of those stupid things like the stupid oxybenzone thing where they waited for all the oxybenzone, you know, lotions to basically walk and run through the system. It took like 18 months for them to make any difference. Um, and then that way the parking management companies can build them into their budget for the future about how this is going to go in terms of income. But let's not forget though, that they did go from free to a hell of a lot of money very quickly. So maybe they've made their money and maybe they're thinking, Hey, let's bring people back downtown and let's be fair and equitable. I don't know. However, if we're going to send back the, um, the, we're just going to say, just make these little slight changes, goes back to the lawyer. She says, okay, fine. Turns into a bill that then gets to go to public testimony. And that's when you guys can actually show your support by coming out and testifying. Now there might be like a little bit of a Lance going where he says, you know what, you know, free market economy does its thing, whatever, taking property rights is not property rights. It's, it's, it's, it's, um, you should be able to use it for your best and highest use is what your, is what we fight for as realtors. That's where we go to Washington DC. That's the way we go to things as a realtor. This, this is not, this is not theoretically property, right? This is business use of a downtown corner. That property said I can make more money by leasing it out and charging this much more for perk. I hate the parking. It's horrible. It's horrible. I'm not sticking up for them at all. It's a nightmare. It fixed itself back in 2000 we ran this, this for a couple of years back then it fixed itself. It'll fix itself. You know, the sadly businesses are going out of business. We can't wait for it to fix itself because businesses are going down out of business. Okay. Okay. Okay. Then what? Huh? Then what are you gonna do for economic development down there? Everything has its cycle. Everything goes around. It comes back and uh, you know, they go away and it, again, it's happened. It's happened previously. It's a, it's, it's terrible what's happening down there, but it's been a windfall for all of the off downtown eateries and stuff. It's a windfall for them. They've hired new people. They've, they're, they're, uh, they're doing really good. Their prices have gone up because they've got, you know, it's hard to get in places sometimes it's bad. Uh, as long as you're off, like we go to secure as a lot and that is, uh, you know, tons of parking there and they got good food at a reasonable price. So it's, it's helped a lot of businesses and it's hurt a lot of businesses. So, and it's a cycle that goes around. We, we, we've been talking about this for months. We're never going to agree to this, but we still love each other. So it's like we're friends. So he says, would you call it free market economy? I did my, my, yeah, it'll fix itself. Okay. And my thing is consumer protection. Okay. So we will see what happens. I'm less government. You're more government. You know what though? Sometimes we have government to protect the consumer. Yeah. Right. Cause we can't do it on our own. Seatbelts and airbags and $2 parking. So, okay. So that's just a little bit of scuttlebutt for you guys. Um, also if you guys want a little more scuttlebutt, um, I heard that, uh, clean Lily Kalani trustees, uh, met with the food truck Friday people and they're probably going to start doing the weekly food truck Fridays up at the old Kmart parking lot. And that way, because right now the way the County works is that they can't do the food truck Fridays more than twice a month down at a old age. And so they need to be able to rely on weekly income. And so they're going to move it to private property. That's interesting. I'll be good. Okay. It's cool that it was at old age. So you're on your ocean right next to the ocean. Yeah. But they, um, they need to be able to know they can count on more than twice a month. So, yeah. So is there anything going on in there? A hundred percent over the Kmart or every other way? That way they know where they can set up and they can get going on that. So, um, and if people can, can, can, yeah. Confusion doesn't help business. Um, anybody over here on a Facebook land, want to throw in anything? Are you pro consumer? So, uh, we, um, are going to have, we don't know if we're going to have you for the, uh, the TTT cause you're always so busy now. The third Thursday of this month. I had to San Diego next week for the week. We're going to the California meeting. Okay. I'll send it to you. Tap into them too. So, because eventually they're going to own our healthcare system. But anyways, uh, we will see you guys. Okay. So if you want to see the whole Island market report with the mortgage report from our buddy Travis, um, and there'll be after the fed, release it's it's information about the fed drop. Uh, please join us. It's going to third Thursday. What do you mean the third Thursday? Um, we probably won't be doing it live though. So you guys aren't going to catch it live. It's going to be a zoom call. And then what we'll do is we'll release it to YouTube right afterwards. So you guys keep an eye out for that. And then also if you guys are thinking about buying and selling a house, obviously like again, what do you do for a living? So real estate, right? And we do too. And so, uh, please call us and we can help you with any type of real estate deal. Um, and also if you want to join the Ohana, go to three 65 Hawaii re.com. You can join the Ohana. And one of the things that I would like to say is that we keep in touch with our clients and we make it so that we do not just forget about you, that once you come to Hawaii, we continue to keep in touch with you so that you will be successful. That's where our thing. Um, and also I get you involved in a variety of different volunteer opportunities. Um, and I make you testify. Um, so, so, uh, give us a call and we'll see you guys next month when we get to get together with Lance again and hear what happened in September with that, we will say. All right.