The Army Corps of Engineers had the Homeowners Assitance Program during the recession of 2007 to 2011 that assisted Service Members who were upside down on their mortgages. There were certain criteria that had to be met such as that you must have purchased the property between certain dates as your primary residence and that you must have received that sent you away from the home you purchased. If you met the criteria then the HAP program in Hawaii contributed the difference between what you sold the house for and what your mortgage balance was. The Service Member who sold the house did not make any profit but the HAP program saved the Service Member from doing a short sale or from going into foreclosure.

David Kucic and Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. assisted several Service Members with HAP sales during the recession.

As I look at the current housing market in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, I see a grim picture for Service Members who purchased homes duriing the pandemic and will soon be on orders to leave Hawaii. Many homes are stagnant on the market because of the large amount of homes for sale and the hesitation of Buyers to purchase a home due to the uncertainty of the future, home prices, inflation and interest rates to name a few.

If you are a Service Member in a difficult situation, please dont hesitate to contact Hawaii Military Realty, Inc for honest and truthful information. You will deal with our team of career, retired Service Members, spouses and active Service Members who are all professionally trained and licensed to take care of our fellow Members.

Unfortunately, I am predicting that there will be short sales on the market within the next 1 to 2 years. I worked approximately 100 short sales for Buyers and Sellers during the recession for both military families and civilians using both VA loans in Hawaii and conventional loans in Hawaii.

What is a short sale? It is when the balance of your mortgage is greater than what you can sell your house for.

Over the past 2 years we have seen a dramatic increase in home prices including Ewa Beach and Kapolei. All of the neighborhoods of Ka Makana at Hoakalei, Kuapapa at Hoakalei, Kipuka at Hoakalei, Lei Pauku at Hoakalei and all of the Ewa by Gentry saw these great price increases.

My concern is mostly for military families in Hawaii who purchased their homes within the past 2 years and will need to leave Hawaii on PCS orders within the next 1 to 2 years. If these military families cannot sell their homes because either the market is flooded with listings or the prices have decreased to an amount below their mortgage balance, they may be forced into a short sale.

They still have the option of renting the house but lets look at some numbers which is what made me write this post in the first place. Lets say a military member purchased a home for $1,000,000 in 2021 using a 100% financed VA loan at 4% interest rate. The mortgage payment including principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA fee is approximately $5,000 to $5,200 per month. The average median price for a single family home in 2021 was around $1,000,000 so we can then assume that the home that the military member purchased was a 3 to 4 bedroom single family home with 1,700 SF of livng space, a 2 car garage and a lot size of around 5,000 SF. Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. manages rental properties in Ewa Beach and Kapolei so we know that a home such as this one will rent for somewhere between $3,600 and $4,000 per month depending on whether the house has solar electric panels, nicely upgraded, pet friendly or not and the rent covers items such as cable TV, internet, swimming pool and fitness center. The normal property management fee is 10% of the collected rent so if we aim for the high end and say the house can rent for $4,000 per month then the amount the owner will collect each month would be $3,600 or $1,400 less than what their mortgage payment is. This doesnt even include items such as the Owner having to pay Hawaii General Excise Tax (GET) of 4.712% or any repairs done to the property during the Tenants occupancy. Many military families cannot afford to come up with that deficit of $1,400 per month and this is why I believe short sales will be prevelant in the next 1 to 2 years.

For any military family that is in this predicament, feel free to reach out to Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. as we consider ourselves to be short sale experts and will help you to navigate through the process. With your help and dedication to getting the short sale completed, we can get your home sold and allow you to move on with your life.

I certainly hope that my prediction is not correct and that we may not see short sales but all signs are pointing toward them.

Just listed for sale Dec 17, 2017 in Ewa Beach, Hawaii located in Ka Makana at Hoakalei.  Our client wants us to sell this wonderful 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouse with owned PV system with original HECO Net Energy Metering, Single Level End Unit, excellent condition, no carpet, private backyard with 2 car attached garage, plantation shutters, fresh coat of neutral interior paint, closet system, Murphy bed perfect for home office. Maintenance and HOA fees cover water, sewer, trash, high speed internet, basic expanded cable tv, home telephone, use of pool, tennis courts and fitness center. The single level end units are the most rarely available in Ka Makana and only a few were built on the ends
of the townhouse clusters.  $600,000.00

For the past 20 years, Haseko has been building new homes in Ewa Beach in the Ocean Pointe and Hoakalei Resort Communities.  Their last residential building is taking place now as they sell out the last few homes in the Lei Pauku Townhouse community near/on Hoakalei Country Club.  Once those are completed, Haseko will focus on building the commercial project in that same area.  It is expected that Haseko will not be selling any new build residential properties for at least the next couple of years will cause our already low supply of homes to get even worse.  Are you interested in New Homes in Hawaii or Homes for Sale in Hawaii?  Contact us and we can help you as we helped over 1,000 Buyers, Sellers, Landlords and Tenants over the past 12 years.

These figures below show the Oahu home price history from 2011 to 2015.  The figures represent the average sales price for each year.

Do you have a Military Veteran relative buried in a cemetery in Hawaii?  Are you unable for some reason to travel to Hawaii to visit the grave site?  Do you wonder what the grave site looks like and if anyone is caring for it?  I am testing out a program to see if I can help you.  Send me the name of your relative along with the cemetery where they are buried and I will go visit the site for you and take a few pictures for you and possibly do a little bit of cleanup while I am there if its needed.  I am only able to offer this for the island of Oahu at this time.  My email address is HawaiiKucic@gmail.com.

Are you Active Duty Military, Retiree, National Guard, Reservist and have questions about your VA Loan eligibility in Hawaii?  We can answer your questions for you and provide you with the expert, honest and professional service that you deserve.  We give you the truth and no sugar coating just as you would expect from your Military Expert Team in Hawaii.   Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. is the ONLY full service, fully dedicated team of Veteran Real Estate Agents and Mortgage Brokers that have served a career in the military and now are here to help you realize your dream of owning a home in Hawaii.

Our Team of VA Loan and Hawaii Home Buyer representatives include:

LTC (Retired) John Sego, VA Loan Specialist

LTC (Retired) John Beury, VA Loan Purchasing Expert

LTC (Retired) Colin Beal, VA Loan Purchasing Expert

2LT Cameron Kucic, VA Loan Purchasing Expert

SFC (Retired) Jeff Loyd, VA Loan Purchasing Expert

1SG (Retired) David Kucic, VA Loan Purchasing Expert