Monthly Archives: November 2010

Habitat home off the grid – Molokai first photovoltaics house

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Habitat home off the grid

Molokai house first to be powered by photovoltaics

Volunteers work on the photovoltaic system on top of the Kaai home in Hoolehua, Molokai, recently. RevoluSun donated labor and time and gave the Kaais a price break on the system for the home, which was built with the Molokai Habitat for Humanity program.
RevoluSun photo

A couple of firsts were celebrated on Molokai.

Lifelong renters David and Liz Kaai and their four children now own their own home; and it is the first “off-the-grid” home built for Habitat for Humanity anywhere in the nation.

“To have the opportunity to show Hawaii we can build an affordable off-the-grid home is truly wonderful,” said Emillia Noordhoek, resource development director for Molokai Habitat for Humanity.

She said the Kaais’ Hoolehua home is equipped with a SunPower photovoltaic system that generates the electricity for the 1,200-square-foot house, so there will be no electricity bills to pay, saving the Kaais at least several hundred dollars a month. The home cost around $112,000 because of the upgrade. Habitat homes on Molokai usually cost around $75,000 to $85,000, Noordhoek said.

A dedication and blessing was held Friday for the 19th home built by Molokai Habitat for Humanity. Through volunteer labor and donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses with the help of the homeowner (partner) families. Habitat houses are sold to partner families at no profit, financed with affordable loans.

The homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments are used to build still more Habitat houses. In addition to a down payment and the monthly mortgage payments, homeowners invest hundreds of hours of their own labor – sweat equity – into building their Habitat house and the houses of others, according to Molokai Habitat’s website.

“We wanted more for ourselves and our children, so Habitat was the way to go,” said Liz Kaai, a homemaker, whose husband is a bus driver. “Habitat was the ‘bomb,’ and we love the volunteer process because it has allowed us to contribute sweat equity to a home we can call ours,” she added.

The Kaais plan to move into their new home in a few weeks.

Community assistance also played a role in bringing the photovoltaic system to the Kaais’ home. RevoluSun, an Oahu-based residential solar company, donated time and labor for the installation of the system, which generates 21 kWh of electricity per day and is backed up by three days of battery storage.

“We are glad to have the opportunity to give back to the community,” said Eric Carlson, one of the owners of RevoluSun.

He said the donated time and labor would normally cost $10,000 to $15,000. The Kaais also were given a discounted price of $44,000 for the system. Carlson added that the $44,000 was $14,000 higher than the $30,000 the Kaais would have needed to pay for a conventional electrical system but said there will be savings in the future.

“It is definitely cheaper in the long run. They will not have a continuing rising electric bill for the life of the home,” he said.

In addition to the battery backup, a diesel generator system that can be turned on when there are prolonged periods of cloudy days will be installed.

Noordhoek said even though the photovoltaic system cost more upfront, the Kaais opted for the system because the Hawaiian Homelands subdivision they were building in does not have complete utilities. That’s why the conventional electrical installation costs would have been so high.

Carlson said that even though his company is only 2 years old, it has already given out two systems for free in addition to helping out with the Kaai home.

“Honestly, it’s a way to spread the message, and it’s an opportunity to get more solar out there. It’s a feel-good thing. We are local here and want to give back to the community.”

He added that he and his company want to show that there is an alternative to fossil fuel power generation. Not only is it clean, but he thinks it’s a smart way to go financially.

Carlson said the project also received help from Young Brothers, which shipped the system for free, and from Solar Supply on Oahu for the logistics and design of the system.

Noordhoek said Habitat would like to do more homes that are off the grid, as costs on Molokai are extremely high compared to other places in Hawaii.

She added that there is another home being built that is “completely of the grid” that includes the home’s own well and catchment system and photovoltaic system.

Since 1998, Molokai Habitat for Humanity has been an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International.

To be chosen for a home, families need to have incomes between 25 percent and 60 percent of the gross median income for Maui County; have the ability to repay a 20-year, zero interest loan; and contribute 700 “sweat equity” hours toward building their home as well as the homes of other Molokai Habitat families.

New Facebook Email to rid of Gmail…E-mail secondary as Facebook revamps messaging

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Facebook unveiled a new messaging platform Monday that takes aim at one of the Internet’s first applications, e-mail.

Although blogs had been speculating that Facebook would announce an e-mail service to rival Google Inc.’s Gmail and others, Facebook said e-mail was just one component of its plans.

Declaring e-mail past its prime in the age of texts and instant messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company doesn’t believe e-mail is going to be a modern messaging system. The first Internet e-mail system arrived in the early 1970s.

“If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg dismissed notions that “Project Titan,” as its service is called, is the “Gmail killer” it’s been dubbed as in the press. But he also said that just as high school students are forgoing e-mail in favor of shorter, more immediate chats, more people down the line will send IMs and chats because it’s simpler, “more fun” and more valuable to use.

Though e-mail is still a primary form of communication for older adults, recent studies suggest this is not the case for young people. Text messaging has surpassed face-to-face contact, e-mail, phone calls and instant messaging as the primary form of communication for U.S. teens, according to a 2009 survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

E-mail use was the lowest — only 11 percent of teens said they use it every day to interact with friends, compared with 54 percent who said they text daily and 30 percent who said they use landline phones.

The popular social network unveiled its plans in San Francisco on Monday, a day before Zuckerberg speaks at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Underscoring the enormity of the project, Facebook’s director of engineering, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, said 15 Facebook engineers worked on the project for 15 months.

Hotel occupancy increases

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September’s room revenue beats last year’s level but falls well short of 2006’s

STAR-ADVERTISER / 2008
Waikiki hotels enjoyed a surge in business last month, with Oahu occupancy rates up 7.5 percentage points over last year. Rates were up on all islands, contributing to statewide hotel occupancy of 70.8 percent in September.

Hawaii’s hotels were fuller and generated more revenue in September compared with the same month a year earlier, but the revenue levels were still well below those reached during the tourism boom in 2006, according to an industry report released today.

Statewide hotel occupancy rose to 70.8 percent in September from 63.6 percent in September 2009, led by big increases at properties on Maui and Oahu, according to the report from Hospitality Advisors LLC and Smith Travel Research. Revenue per available room, a key measure of industry profitability, rose to $113.20 from $102.02 during the same period.

Through the first nine months of the year, room revenue totaled $1.9 billion, a 7.4 percent increase over the same period in 2009. Compared with 2006, however, revenue was down by about 20 percent, said Joseph Toy, president and chief executive officer of Hospitality Advisors.

Hotel owners are still having to offer discounted rates to generate the demand needed to fill rooms, he added. The average daily room rate was $159.88 in September compared with $160.41 a year earlier.

“Although we’re seeing demand build back into the market, pricing hasn’t recovered,” Toy said. “There is still a lot of excess capacity, especially on the Big Island and Kauai, which continue to lag.”

Occupancy was highest on Oahu, where hotels were 81.7 percent full, up from 74.2 percent 12 months earlier. The biggest increase in occupancy was on Maui, where the rate rose to 63.7 percent, 10.4 percentage points higher than September 2009.

Hotels on Kauai saw their average occupancy rate rise to 58.7 percent in September from 55 percent a year earlier. The Big Island trailed with occupancy rising to 52.1 percent from 49.6 percent.

Ken Fujiyama, whose family business owns the Naniloa Volcanoes Resort in Hilo and the Volcano House hotel in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, said although business did pick up during September, it slipped again in October. That followed a “strange few weeks” in July when occupancy at the Naniloa surged to 90 percent, he added.

Volatility in the hotel occupancy rate has always been a problem for Hilo properties because of the lack of exposure the area receives, Fujiyama said.

“Hilo has always been that way. It’s not a primary visitor destination. It’s never been marketed as a destination spot even though 90 percent of the island’s attractions are on the east (Hilo) side,” he said.

Although Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is just a 45-minute drive from Hilo, it is often tied to tour packages that originate at the resorts on the western side of the island, he said.

Fujiyama said he was optimistic that his business would improve in the coming year as the economic recovery solidifies and renovations at the Naniloa Resort near completion. The hotel has been experiencing disruptions from construction since the Fujiyama family bought it in 2006. The hotel will begin offering restaurant services this month for the first time since the renovations began, he said.

“We still have more to do, but now we can start marketing the hotel and sign contracts with major travel wholesalers,” he said.

The Hospitality Advisors report said Hawaii’s 71.2 percent hotel occupancy rate for the first nine months of the year ranked third among major U.S. destinations. New York was first at 80.9 percent, followed by San Francisco at 76.2 percent.

Hawaii’s $172.71 average daily room rate was second highest, sandwiched between New York at $217.06 and Miami at $146.08.

The Aloha State also ranked second in revenue per available room, at $122.89. New York was No. 1 at $175.59, while Miami was third at $102.41.

The September Hawaii data were derived from a survey of 162 hotels representing 47,767 rooms, or 83.6 percent of all lodging properties in the state with 20 or more rooms.

Mahalo to Tricia Morris for this Economic Update

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Tricia Morris  |  Hawaii’s Premiere Mortgage
Office: 800 813-7711 x116  |  On Maui: 808 874-8800 x116
tricia@mortgagemaui.com  |  www.mortgagemaui.com

For the week of Nov 15, 2010 – Vol. 8, Issue 46“INFLATION IS WHEN YOU PAY $15 FOR THE $10 HAIRCUT YOU USED TO GET FOR $5

In This Issue 
Last Week in Review: Recent economic events are giving a strong indication of where rates are headed. Read on to find out where and why.

Forecast for the Week: Here’s a quick rundown of reports we need to watch this week… and there are some big ones on the docket!

View: Read below to find out how decluttering your home can help you financially!

Last Week in Review

“INFLATION IS WHEN YOU PAY $15 FOR THE $10 HAIRCUT YOU USE TO GET FOR $5
WHEN YOU HAD HAIR.” – Sam Ewing. And regardless of how much hair you have these days… one thing we can watch to help a get sense of where rates are going is inflation.

Right now, the headline numbers in the US show little inflation overall… but we are already seeing significant inflation in particular items like commodities, food, other shopping products that you find in some shopping reviews sites,  and oil – which are being driven by a weak US Dollar, and increasing demand from emerging countries like China and India. In addition, the global market reacted late last week to higher-than-expected inflation in China. This is important to us because Bonds and home loan rates hate inflation, no matter where the whiff of it comes from.

Here’s why. Think of inflation as a hot air balloon and rates as the basket under that balloon. As the balloon (or inflation) rises, the basket (or rates) must rise as well.

So, if inflation moves higher in China, their government has to raise rates to fight inflation. And if rates move higher in China, global investors seeking the highest yield will move away from the relatively meager returns seen in US Bonds – and move their Bond buying money into juicier yields found abroad.

There are so many opinions by so many smart people on both sides of the inflation argument, but right now it is all about what the Bond market thinks. And the recent market action shows just how quickly sentiment in the market can change. Remember, it was just a few weeks ago that fears and whispers of deflation helped the Bond market – and home loan rates – improve.
But now with the Fed intent on avoiding deflation and in fact creating inflation through another round of Quantitative Easing (or QE2), the entire Bond market – including Mortgage Bonds – have began to react negatively. Remember, Quantitative Easing is the concept of the Fed becoming a buyer of Treasuries and Bonds, in a bid to stimulate the economy by:
Creating inflation

  • Lowering the unemployment rate
  • Raising Stock prices

While those goals may be good for the overall economy, we need to remember that all three are very unfriendly to Mortgage Bonds and home loan rates.

The good news is, despite ending the week worse than where they started, home loan rates are still near historic lows for the time being. If you or someone you know is looking to take advantage of low rates, now is the time. Please call or email me today to get started.

Forecast for the Week 
After a relatively slow schedule of economic reports last week, we’ll see some big reports over the next few days with the potential to really move the markets.

We’ll start off right away Monday morning with the Retail Sales report for October as well as a dose of manufacturing news in the Empire State Index, which looks at New York State’s manufacturing sector, and is a good gauge of manufacturing overall. On Thursday, we’ll also see the Philadelphia Fed Index, which is another important manufacturing report. Those two indices have the potential to impact the market, since they indicate the health of the manufacturing sector in the US.

Even more big news is headed our way on Tuesday with the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level. Then, the very next day on Wednesday morning, we’ll see theConsumer Price Index (CPI) with a look at inflation at the consumer level. In light of last week’s news and the information described above, it will be important to see what these reports reveal – since inflation is the archenemy of Bonds and home loan rates.
Wednesday will also bring more housing industry news with reports on the number of Housing Startsand Building Permits in October.

The week of reports caps off on Thursday with the Initial Jobless Claims report. Last week’s report indicated that Initial Jobless Claims fell in the latest week to the lowest reading since July. Continuing Jobless Claims also moved lower. While those numbers showed modest improvements and are steps in the right direction, there is still a lot of wood to chop where jobs are concerned.

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result.
Some of the charts that monitor Bond activity can look complex – but they tell quite a story! In the chart below, pay attention to the downward trend for Bond prices (which means an upward trend for home loan rates) since November 3rd, which was when the Fed announced their QE2 plans. This chart shows us that Mortgage Bonds have traded sharply lower since the Fed Meeting and official QE2 announcement. Again, home loan rates are still at historically low levels for the time being, which means there’s still time to purchase or refinance a home and take advantage of the great rates. And it only takes a few minutes to get the process started – please feel free to get in touch with me, and pass on this newsletter to friends, family members, neighbors or coworkers that might benefit as well!

Chart: Fannie Mae 3.5% Mortgage Bond (Friday November 12, 2010)

The Mortgage Market View…

Financial Benefits of Decluttering
It pays off to unload items you no longer need (or never really needed at all)
By Cameron Huddleston,  Kiplinger.com
I have been in a decluttering mode lately. It was sparked by moving my mom from her three-bedroom home to a one-bedroom apartment in my house — and having to pare down her belongings. Spending weeks going through all her stuff to figure out what she did and didn’t need (then selling and donating the unnecessary items) made me want to remove all the clutter from my life, too. A few articles I recently read fueled this desire even more.

My husband and I usually go through our closet once a year to clear out clothes we no longer wear. But an article in the New York Times about  people who decided to wear only six items for a month made me aware that there still is a lot in my closet that I don’t need.

We occasionally go through other closets, cabinets and drawers to rid them of items that don’t get used and just take up space. After reading G.E. Miller’s  3 Guerilla Tactics to Get Rid of Clutter on 20somethingfinance, I realized my haphazard keep-or-toss tactics weren’t cutting it.

What resonated with me most, though, was a reader comment on the Opinionator blog post  How to Lose a Legacy. The reader wrote about cleaning out his (or her) parents’ home after his mother died and father moved out: “I wonder why we (me) hang on to stuff that really just takes up physical and emotional “room” in our lives; I s’pose it’s because the “stuff” (as George Carlin so aptly and comically put it) signifies a longing to hang on to, or dare I say, cling, to memories using physical things… even if we actually wish we could just throw a lot of it in the trash.”

It feels good to get rid of the clutter. This is a personal finance column, so I won’t advocate just throwing your stuff in the trash because you’d miss out on the financial benefits of decluttering. Here’s what getting rid of things you don’t need can do for your finances.

1. Lower your tax bill. If you itemize on your tax return, take all that stuff to Goodwill or any other charitable organization and claim a deduction for your contribution. Goodwill has a  list of price ranges for items sold in its stores that can help you figure out the market value of items you donate. If your noncash contributions total more than $500, you must complete Form 8283 and attach it to your tax return. Single items valued at $5,000 or more, regardless of condition, require a written appraisal.

2. Put money in your pocket. You’ve heard it before: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Have a yard sale ( see these tips) or sell your wares on eBay, Craigslist and other sites ( watch this video).

3. Eliminate financial mess. While you’re decluttering, take the time to get rid of documents you no longer need and go digital with the rest. See  Paper Records: What to Toss, What to Keep and  Create a Digital Archive of Tax Records for help. This exercise can help you get your remaining documents organized, save you time as you prepare your next tax return and perhaps prompt you to find ways to streamline more of your financial responsibilities (by setting up automatic bill pay, for example, and eliminating all those monthly paper bills).

Reprinted with permission. All Contents ©2010 The Kiplinger Washington Editors.  www.kiplinger.com.

————————–

This Week’s Economic Calendar

Remember, as a general rule, weaker than expected economic data is good for rates, while positive data causes rates to rise.

Economic Calendar for the Week of November 15 – November 19

Tricia Morris
535 Lipoa Pkwy, Suite 101
Kihei, HI 96753
Mortgage Success Source, LLC is the copyright owner or licensee of the content and/or information in this email, unless otherwise indicated.   Mortgage Success Source, LLC does not grant to you a license to any content, features or materials in this email.   You may not distribute, download, or save a copy of any of the content or screens except as otherwise provided in our Terms and Conditions of Membership, for any purpose.

Affordable-housing plan needs county's OK

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A Big Island project’s land-use change approval is subject to certain conditions

The state Land Use Commission has provided conditional approval for urbanizing 272 acres on the Big Island, advancing a plan to develop 2,330 homes initiated by the state to provide work-force housing.

Last week’s decision, opposed strongly by the property’s former owner, advances the estimated $734 million master-planned community called Kamakana Villages at Keahuolu for consideration by various Hawaii County entities, including the County Council.

On Friday the LUC filed an order to convert the land from agricultural use to urban use after a 7-2 vote by commission members.

However, the approval was granted subject to several conditions.

One condition is that the production and distribution of affordable homes be agreeable to the county.

Developer Forest City Hawaii LLC has proposed providing 1,169 homes — or just over half of all Kamakana homes — at affordable prices under federal guidelines.

The developer has committed to providing 1,138 multifamily homes and 31 single-family homes at prices estimated between $200,000 and $400,000, though about 400 homes would be rentals.

Market-price homes at Kamakana would include 531 multifamily homes and 630 single-family homes at estimated prices from $300,000 to $700,000.

Another condition is that the developer produce a traffic impact analysis report that is approved by the county and state Department of Transportation, and that the developer implement any mitigation measures recommended by the government related to direct impacts from the project. Also, the developer must contribute its fair share of regional transportation improvements.

The traffic mitigation issue was a main point of objection to the project from the Queen Liliuokalani Trust, which expressed concerns that other landowners and taxpayers would be left to make traffic improvements necessitated by adding so many homes in the area.

The trust also argued that the state, which bought the property from the trust in 1992 under threat of condemnation, originally wanted the site and neighboring land for a broader range of public uses, including a University of Hawaii campus and a sports complex.

A state agency charged with facilitating affordable-housing development, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., initially advanced the conceptual plan for Kamakana, and selected Forest City to develop the state property with assistance of a $25 million loan.

HHFDC said Kamakana will help meet an acute need for affordable housing in West Hawaii and reduce regional highway traffic that is bad in part because many workers at nearby hotels commute to the area from far away.

The development agreement between the agency and the developer requires that at least 50 percent of the homes be sold at prices affordable to people earning no more than 140 percent of the Big Island’s median income, or $65,370 for a single person or $93,380 for a family of four.

Forest City has proposed making 58 of the 1,169 affordable homes affordable to residents earning up to the maximum limit. Another 286 homes would be affordable to those earning 100 percent to 120 percent of the median income, and 825 homes would be affordable to those earning between 80 percent and 100 percent of the median income.

 

The state Land Use Commission has provided conditional approval for urbanizing 272 acres on the Big Island, advancing a plan to develop 2,330 homes initiated by the state to provide work-force housing.

Last week’s decision, opposed strongly by the property’s former owner, advances the estimated $734 million master-planned community called Kamakana Villages at Keahuolu for consideration by various Hawaii County entities, including the County Council.

On Friday the LUC filed an order to convert the land from agricultural use to urban use after a 7-2 vote by commission members.

However, the approval was granted subject to several conditions.

One condition is that the production and distribution of affordable homes be agreeable to the county.

Developer Forest City Hawaii LLC has proposed providing 1,169 homes — or just over half of all Kamakana homes — at affordable prices under federal guidelines.

The developer has committed to providing 1,138 multifamily homes and 31 single-family homes at prices estimated between $200,000 and $400,000, though about 400 homes would be rentals.

Market-price homes at Kamakana would include 531 multifamily homes and 630 single-family homes at estimated prices from $300,000 to $700,000.

Another condition is that the developer produce a traffic impact analysis report that is approved by the county and state Department of Transportation, and that the developer implement any mitigation measures recommended by the government related to direct impacts from the project. Also, the developer must contribute its fair share of regional transportation improvements.

The traffic mitigation issue was a main point of objection to the project from the Queen Liliuokalani Trust, which expressed concerns that other landowners and taxpayers would be left to make traffic improvements necessitated by adding so many homes in the area.

The trust also argued that the state, which bought the property from the trust in 1992 under threat of condemnation, originally wanted the site and neighboring land for a broader range of public uses, including a University of Hawaii campus and a sports complex.

A state agency charged with facilitating affordable-housing development, the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., initially advanced the conceptual plan for Kamakana, and selected Forest City to develop the state property with assistance of a $25 million loan.

HHFDC said Kamakana will help meet an acute need for affordable housing in West Hawaii and reduce regional highway traffic that is bad in part because many workers at nearby hotels commute to the area from far away.

The development agreement between the agency and the developer requires that at least 50 percent of the homes be sold at prices affordable to people earning no more than 140 percent of the Big Island’s median income, or $65,370 for a single person or $93,380 for a family of four.

Forest City has proposed making 58 of the 1,169 affordable homes affordable to residents earning up to the maximum limit. Another 286 homes would be affordable to those earning 100 percent to 120 percent of the median income, and 825 homes would be affordable to those earning between 80 percent and 100 percent of the median income.