We all knew it was coming and now it is here. A Canadian condominium developer seeking to build two projects in the Kamaole area has filed a suit in Federal Court challenging Maui's "Workforce Residential Housing Policy."
We received a mixed-bag today. First the good news. GDP for the second quarter (ended June) was revised upwards to 4%, an outstanding number.
Standard and Poor's Case-Shiller Index is a composite of single-family home sales results in the 20 largest US cities. They reported their second quarter numbers today and the news was not good.
As you probably know, there is a controversy going on regarding the future of transient accommodations (vacation rentals) in non-hotel zoned properties. In the past, the County has tended to look the other way except in the cases of ongoing complaints. We are sympathetic to the views that zoning regulations should be followed, period. However, after so many years of active non-enforcement, we believe the impact of shutting down bed and breakfasts would cause economic hardship for owners, damage the visitor industry on Maui and drive potential visitors to other destinations. Rather than shut-down, the County should force all such existing businesses to register and be subject to good conduct provisions.
The National Association of Realtors has released their July existing homes sales data.
Bank of America has taken what is the equivalent of a 16% stake in Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender. The size of the investment is $2 billion.
In the last week, Wailea Beach Villas unit E102 sold for $4 million after being listed for $4.9 million and penthouse unit 505 sold for $3.75 million after originally being listed for $4.5 million. New listings have come on the market in Makena Surf and several listing price reductions have been announced for oceanfront units. For more information, contact us!
Home foreclosures in Hawai'i continued growing last month over a year ago, though the local foreclosure rate was sixth-lowest among states, according to a report from RealtyTrac. The Irvine, Calif.-based real-estate research firm said there were 85 Hawai'i foreclosure filings in July, up 60 percent from 53 in the same month last year