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.

This market on Oahu is crazy as we are all aware.  It’s really a great time to be a Seller for many reasons during these times.

My concern is with our Buyers, specifically our VA Buyers who are doing 100% financing as most VA Buyers do and then needing to leave on PCS orders in 3 years.

We have no idea how long this Sellers market will last and when it will swing back in favor of Buyers.  Once the market shifts back to a Buyers market, there is more competition amongst Sellers to attract Buyers and one of the ways they do that is by offering things such as lower price and paying for some or all of the Buyers closing costs.

If our VA Buyers are unable to sell their homes because they would have to come out of pocket with cash in order to sell, then their next logical choice is to turn it into a rental property.  That is great as long as the Owner is able to “eat” the shortage each month.

For example, let’s say Sergeant Smith buys a condo in Ewa Beach for $425,000 with 100% financing.  The maintenance and HOA fee is approximately $550 per month.  The mortgage payment would be about $1,625 per month.  That’s $2,175 total.  Those units rent for about $2,000 per month.   The property manager gets $200.  The GET that the owner pays is $120 per month.  This means that Sergeant Smith would be upside down by $495 per month and that doesn’t include any repairs that might need to be made.  

Please think about your future when purchasing a home rather than just jumping in without the knowledge of what could potentially happen in the future.

Its a trickle down effect. Buyers cant buy homes because there is too much competition and the Buyers cant wait forever so they are now turning to renting homes in Ewa Beach, Hawaii or moving into government housing. Its really a shame that these Buyers are not able to be competitive enough to buy homes but its all about “who has the most liquid cash to pay above the asking price for a house?” Typically, that is not my brother and sister Veterans that have this type of liquid cash so they are being priced out of the market. This makes renting a home even a difficult task for some Military Families since they are unable to purchase homes and now there is even competition for rental homes. Some of the most desirable areas in Ewa Beach, Hawaii such as the Hoakalei Resort properties of Ka Makana, Kuapapa and Lei Pauku, Ocean Pointe, Ewa By Gentry homes in all neighborhoods including Sonoma, Prescott, Haleakea, Cypress Point, Woodbridge, Carriages, Parkside, Tuscany, Montecito, Las Brisas, Tiburon, Cortebella, Terraza, Tides, Trades, SeaBridge, Coral Ridge, Latitude and Sandalwood to name a few.

The inventory of homes for sale in Ewa Beach, Hawaii is minimal. There are a ton of Buyers looking for homes. Interest rates are low. Combine those 3 things and you have “bidding wars” on homes. In the past 2 weeks, we have had Buyers make offers ABOVE the list price by many, many thousands of dollars only to get beat out by someone that was willing to go higher. Two of the properties had a total of 28 offers and another one had 22 offers. Thats very hard to compete with if Buyers are not willing and/or not able to pay a higher price and have disposable cash to make up the difference between the appraised value and the inflated price they have to pay just to get the house.

The following homes are currently available on the home sale market.  All of these homes are located on Hoakalei Country Club Golf Course in Ewa Beach, Hawaii.  Hoakalei CC is a private club and is the TOP golf course on the island of Oahu.  For more information on these homes or any other homes for sale in Hawaii, contact Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. at (808) 218-9338.  We are your Buyer, Seller, Landlord and Tenant experts in Hawaii.  Our real estate agents with Hawaii Military Realty, Inc. own homes in the neighborhoods listed below so we are your best source of information.  These homes are all approved to be purchased with a VA Home Loan in Hawaii.

1.  Located on the 9th hole, this 60.40 model has 5 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a two car garage plus a one car garage, 3,539 interior square feet, a full owned photovoltaic electric system.  The house is located far enough down the 9th fairway to be out of the range of being hit by golf balls.  Price is $1,300,000.00.
2. This 60.30 model home is one of the only homes currently available with a large yard that can fit a swimming pool.  This home is located on the 11th fairway and is definitely out of range of being hit by 99% of golfers.  If a golfer hits this house with a golf ball, it was most likely the worst golfer on the planet.  Featuring a 3 car garage, 5 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, a 6,810 SF lot, 3,709 interior SF, Tigerwood flooring and many more upgrades.  Price is $1,299,000.00.
3. Located just behind the 14th tee box, this 60.50 model home is the only single level home currently available for sale on Hoakalei Country Club Golf Course.  It has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and 2,175 SF interior.   It also has a 2 car garage and driveway parking for 2 more cars.  Very nicely upgraded and in excellent condition.  Price is $1,279,000.00.
4. With a very nice view, this 65.10 model home features 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,536 SF interior, a 2 car garage and driveway parking for 2 more cars.   This home is also one of the few that has a yard large enough for a swimming pool and is located away from the golf ball kill zone overlooking the 9th fairway and 9th green.  Price is $1,250,000.00.
5. Located in the gated community of Kipuka at Hoakalei, this home overlooks the 17th fairway.  It features 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,197 Sf interior, 2 car garage, driveway parking and is priced at $960,000.00.
6. Also located in the gated community of Kipuka at Hoakalei, this corner lot home has a beautiful view of the 14th green, lake and 10th fairway.  It features 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2,072 SF interior and a 2 car garage.  Price is $940,000.00.

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.