Author Archives: The Hansen Ohana

Hawaii population grows to nearly 1.4 million

Posted on by

Hawaii population grows to nearly 1.4 million

By Associated Press

Article from: Honolulu Star Advertiser

 Dec 21, 2010

New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau are showing that

Hawaii’s population has expanded in the last decade by 12

   percent, to almost 1.4 million residents.

Population figures for the country and individual states were released Tuesday by the agency, which strives to count every resident every decade.

The 2000 census indicated Hawaii’s population was 1.21 million. The new figures show that number has grown to 1.36 million.

In 1960, just after it became a state, Hawaii was home to about 632,000.

Upcoming Fun and Festive Activities in Maui

Posted on by

Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe! Fairmont Kea Lani Welcomes

‘Ole St. Nick

by kelii on December 16, 2010

From the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau

 

Santa and his Menehune Ride a wave to Polo Beach!

Okay, so the canoe isn’t exactly red (it’s white), but you get the idea! The holidays are upon us and while there are many exciting festivities taking place all across Maui Nui, one of my all-time favorite happenings is Santa and Mrs. Claus’ arrival at the Fairmont Kea Lani in Wailea.

 

Santa in his local “slippahs” and Mrs. Claus in her lovely Hawaiian muumuu greet the crowd!

This festive event takes place on Friday, December 24, 2010 at noon. Kris Kringle, along with his menehune and Mrs. Claus, splash ashore Polo Beach to spread holiday cheer as local residents and hotel guests gather in anticipation.

 

“Mele Kalikimaka” Hawaiian-style and Sean the Juggler courtesy our friends at the Fairmont Kea Lani!

Bring your camera for a photo with Santa. Sean the Juggler will be there to cheer on the crowd as well. It will be an unforgettable experience for all.

From the Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau

Another Positive Hawaii Jobs Forecast

Posted on by

Report: ‘Green’ jobs in Hawaii to rise 26 percent

By Associated Press

Article from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser

A new state report projects the number of “green” jobs in Hawaii increasing 26 percent by 2012.

The report by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations defines green jobs as including those in the renewable energy industry; that reduce pollution and waste, and conserve natural resources; and that are focused on energy efficiency.

The study says there are more than 11,100 such jobs currently in the state, mostly in the construction, professional services and waste management industries.

It says in 2012, the number of such jobs will rise to about 14,000, or almost 3 percent of the islands’ total employment.

The report was financed by a $1.2 million competitive grant Hawaii won from the federal economic stimulus law.

Interesting Post on Mortgage Trends

Posted on by

5 year-end mortgage trends to watch now

Low interest rates and long processing times likely will continue

through the new year. Other trends, such as zero-cost mortgages,

also could grow.

By Holden Lewis of Bankrate.com

Article from: MSN.com

Mortgage rates will remain low, getting a home loan will continue to take a long time and refinancers will be tempted by zero-closing-cost mortgages.

Those are some of the trends that mortgage industry insiders predict as the year ends. Bankrate asked a half-dozen mortgage professionals to weigh in on where housing is headed as a difficult 2010 comes to a close.

Here are their predictions.

1. Mortgage rates will stay low
Mortgage rates have dipped to modern record lows this fall. In the spring, economists had been warning that rates would be rising by now.

At the end of March, the Federal Reserve wrapped up an initiative to drive down mortgage rates by buying $1.25 trillion worth of mortgage-backed securities. The consensus throughout the mortgage industry was that rates would increase steadily through the end of this year.

Instead, mortgage rates fell steadily through the summer and into the fall. Now, with the Fed announcing it will buy $600 billion in Treasury securities through the second quarter of next year, speculation is that rates will remain low.

A.W. Pickel, CEO of LeaderOne Financial, a mortgage bank based in Overland Park, Kan., says he doesn’t see how 30-year fixed rates could go much lower.

“The mortgage interest rate should be inflation plus cost of funds,” he says. “That should put us in the fours, which is where it is.”

2. Foreclosure ‘overhang’ possible
Earlier this fall, some of the country’s largest mortgage servicers temporarily suspended foreclosure actions in states where courts oversee foreclosures. The reason: Flawed documents allegedly were filed in court.

As Congress looks into what happened, the issue stems from legal documents signed by people who swore that they had personal knowledge that the foreclosures were justified. Some signers have testified that they affixed their signatures assembly-line-style, without reading the underlying legal documents.

“I don’t know how they got those people to sign that,” says Matt Hackett, underwriting manager for Equity Now, a direct mortgage lender in New York. He says the issue never would have surfaced if people hadn’t signed foreclosure papers where “the numbers are wrong.”

As the scandal unfolded, observers wondered about the long-term effects. Will it cause an enormous overhang of unsellable houses? Will legal paralysis allow borrowers to remain in their foreclosed homes indefinitely?

“People are not paying and sitting,” says Michael Moskowitz, president of Equity Now. “We’re going to have foreclosure overhang.”

3. Processing times will remain long
With rates having reached record lows, borrower frustration is at record highs. It seemingly takes forever to get a home loan, especially a refinance.

“Underwriting turn times are absolutely awful across the board right now,” says Dan Green, loan officer for Waterstone Mortgage in Cincinnati. “Many lenders are recommending 60-day (rate) locks right now, just because of volume.

“It’s a tax, really. Everybody’s interest rates are a little bit higher, and fees are a little bit higher because of the inability for appraisers to get to homes quickly (and) for underwriters to get through files quickly. Everybody’s just overworked right now.”

The process is particularly brutal for homeowners who have home-equity loans or home-equity lines of credit. Before they can refinance, these borrowers must persuade their equity lenders to resubordinate, in which the lenders agree to keep the loan in second-banana status.

“People need to realize (that) if they have home-equity lines of credit, the subordination can take up to 30 days,” says Dick Lepre, senior loan consultant for Residential Pacific Mortgage in San Francisco.

Because of paperwork backups and subordinations, Paul Anastos of Mortgage Master, a lender based in Walpole, Mass., says his company recommends locking for 75 days, “which means we’re trying to close those loans in 65 days.

4. Temptation grows for zero-cost refinances
Mortgage rates have fallen so much since 2009 that it makes sense for many homeowners to apply for zero-cost refinances.

The term “zero cost” isn’t completely accurate because a refinance always carries fees. But with a zero-cost refi, the borrower accepts a rate that’s higher by a quarter percentage point or more in exchange for not having to pay fees out of pocket.

How do you know you got a good deal on a zero-cost refi? Comparison shop, Green says.

“Make sure, when you do your comparison, that you specifically ask for a no-closing-cost mortgage,” Green says. “It’s the only way to compare rates, if you’re comparing the same fees, too.”

When a mortgage broker or loan officer does it, this type of loan employs a controversial practice called a yield-spread premium. When a bank does it, it’s called a servicing-release premium.

Yield-spread premiums are restricted under recent financial-reform law, but no-cost mortgages likely will remain legal.

5. Jumbos look attractive, but buyers are scarce
In the past few months, rates on jumbo mortgages, which are home loans for more than $417,000 in most areas and $729,750 in “high-cost” areas, have been falling faster than rates on other mortgages. Now, rates on jumbos are downright attractive.

That’s quite a turnaround. Jumbo rates skyrocketed in the summer of 2007 amid the mortgage meltdown and remained high for a long time. A year ago, the benchmark jumbo rate was 1.2 percentage points more than 30-year fixed rate for conforming loans, or mortgages for less than the jumbo limit. Lately, the rate has been less than three-quarters of a percentage point higher.

Rates are low, but few people are refinancing their jumbo loans because underwriting is strict, Anastos says.

“Some of the refinancing on a jumbo loan takes so much longer than on a conforming loan,” he says.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not guarantee jumbo loans. Consequently, jumbo rates are higher because they pose more risk to the lender.

 **Be sure to discuss your lending needs and questions with a qualified professional**

Update on Wailea Parking Project

Posted on by

Order by judge puts a hold on Wailea project

December 17, 2010 – By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
Article from: The Maui News
WAILUKU – Opponents of the Grand Wailea’s planned $250 million expansion persuaded 2nd Circuit Judge Joel August to issue a temporary stop-work order Thursday on a project to build 22 new parking stalls at the Wailea end of South Kihei Road.

Wailuku attorney Isaac Hall sought and received a temporary restraining order to halt the nonprofit Wailea Community Association’s construction of the public parking stalls.

In his order issued at 2 p.m. Thursday, August said the allegations in Hall’s request for a temporary restraining order could, if substantiated, “provide a basis for finding a causal nexus between the current construction of the beach access parking stalls . . . and the (special management area) permitting process for the proposed expansion of the Grand Wailea Hotel.”

Immediately after the judge issued his order, the community group’s volunteers and its contractor, Sonny Vick’s Paving, stopped work that had begun Monday.

The parking is intended for Keawakapu Beach, and it was initiated by the community association and Maui County in 2003 after the association raised concerns about pedestrian safety.

But Hall successfully argued to the judge that the project paid for by Pyramid Project Management, which is proposing the Grand Wailea expansion, is a way for the developer to “circumvent” a number of special management area permit conditions needed for the expansion project.

For example, the Grand Wailea had been ordered to increase parking at its property and elsewhere in the Wailea resort.

Hall pointed out that Pyramid is financing the $86,000 beach access project.

Although Keawakapu is not adjacent to the Grand Wailea, paying for the access was part of the Pyramid’s permit that the judge vacated on Sept. 15 after he decided that adjacent landowners were improperly denied their request for intervener status before the Maui Planning Commission.

Attorney B. Martin Luna, representing Pyramid, said that although it is true that construction of parking stalls was a condition of the hotel’s special management area permit, that permit has been vacated by August.

The judge’s action means, Luna pointed out, that “the permit and all conditions set forth in the permit are now void. Pyramid cannot be fulfilling a requirement that no longer exists.”

“In no way shape or form is the Grand Wailea expansion part of this,” Luna said.

Community Association General Manager Bud Pikrone also insisted there is no connection between the project to build beach-access stalls and the hotel’s expansion.

“I’m disappointed,” Pikrone said of the stop-work order. “We thought we were supporting the county since it’s their land and (it’s) doing good for the community. Long before there was any Grand Wailea expansion planned, back in 2003, we were working on this beach project.”

He said adding parking for people going to beaches like Keawakapu was a county project at first. But plans remained shelved because county money wasn’t available for the project.

“We offered to pay for it because the alternative was parking on a dangerous and dusty road shoulder,” Pikrone said. “And, now, unfortunately, some people don’t see the benefit and are fighting it for their own personal reasons. This whole thing is crazy.”

Neighbors have said the parking project is unnecessary and would result in fewer parking spaces. Now, motorists park haphazardly in the dirt on the mauka side of the road. The project would create a partly paved, partly grassed walkway, with some parallel parking, on the mauka side of the road for beach access. On the makai side, where people have parked on grass, the project would install parallel spaces. Some of the current parking spaces would be lost, but it’s unclear how many.

Pikrone said the community association has its own special management area permit for the beach parking project. Work was supposed to be done in 10 days.

Now, the next move will be for both sides of the dispute to meet with August at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.