President Obama announced a plan that would help all homeowners to refinance their homes and take advantage of these historically low rates.  In a bid to help the struggling economy, the Federal Government would step in to not only help those who have a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage, but also homeowners who have […]

According to the Mortgage Monitor, an independent group that analyzes the number of mortgages nationally, the number of foreclosures surprisingly declined by a huge 11% last month to a level not seen since 2008.  The improvement in the economy has allow more people to hold onto their properties.  This is shown to be a good […]

The new FDIC proposal for outlining the rules for the new QRM requirements and risk retention rules was presented a couple of days ago.  As we previously announced, largely the focus was on the QRM requirements.  However, it may be the risk retention rules that may more damaging to the housing market. It was generally […]

In the first three months of this year, the Federal Stimulus package created 2,566 jobs for Hawaii.  This number is blow the 3,019 jobs that can be directly attributed to stimulus spending for the last three months of 2009.  The vast majority of jobs created are for infrastructure projects.  The government has cautioned that employments […]

The high-end market in Hawaii seems to be selling fast.  There are several $1+million homes that have gone under contract soon after being listed showing that buyer demand is likely increasing.  For example, just over the weekend 2 properties went under contract in under 11 days.  The two properties were: 1.  505 Maono Loop, Honolulu […]

The number of short sales of single-family homes on Oahu appears to be slowing.  Looking back at the past 6 months, the number of short sales listed as being active has slowed.  It appears that the peak of new listings of short sale properties was in September with 35 new short sale listings, with October […]

One of the first questions I receive when I meet people and they find out I am Realtor is, “Are we at the bottom yet?”.  My reply is always, “Well, if I could tell for sure, I would not be selling real estate.”  (Delivered with a big grin).  I just follow the numbers and try […]

Great news for home buyers, home sellers and the U.S. economy is how the National Association of Realtors® greeted this morning’s announcement by the Federal Reserve that it will purchase housing-related debts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thus freeing up mortgage money on Main Street. “This is one of the key actions we’ve been […]