Hilo Farmer’s Market

Originally uploaded by John Dirgo

Recently I decided to take some photos of the famous Hilo Farmer’s Market. You can see all the photos here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndirgo/sets/72157606042806741/

High, Hot , and Happening!!!

I am so looking at the future of the Big Island as the place to be, buy, live, and explore. High snow covered mountains, hot lava flows, arts and culture. Checking out recent rags that are predicting things to turn around in our real estate market as soon as August of this year. Big Island Economy Forecast I am inspired and love living and working here.
I want to talk to everyone about the things like VOG, Surfing, Fishing, Snorkling, catchment, property values, you name it and lets talk about it. Real estate prices are right again.
I live in Hilo, and also own property in Kapoho and Nanawale.For some basic and specific info on those places, fell free to visit my websiteAloha Coast Realty When I bought my first home here on Wainaku St in Hilo in 2000, everyone said BAD AREA….Crime was the reason. They had a drive by shooting six years ago I was told. I am from Birmingham Alabama, and drive by was weekly. Crime is relative and this is the safest place I have ever been. No drive by has happend here since I moved here. Same for Nanawale in the Puna area. Lived there three years and still have a house there. A great place to live and a wonderful value. Great Practical homes under 200k, and some on oversized lots for under 150k. Close to Hot Ponds, Tide Pools, and short drive to active lava flows that excite me and was the main drive for me to move here. Lets talk and if you come, I will take you on a real estate tour of some of the most incredible places to be, play, buy, and see..
The primary of this blog is Hilo, so hit me up and I will tell you everything I know. Tell me the things that are of interest and I will get that on this blog. This is not about me or to try to sell you anything. So jump in, the water is fine, and lets have some fun.

David Deweese R PB RN e-PRO owner

808-896-5623

The Tribune-Herald reported today (sorry, that link will probably only be good for a couple of weeks) that the County Council had approved funds to pay for a part-time “visitor access manager” to help educate people about the tidepools. Of course, not many people realize that the Vacationland Hawaii Community Association has been paying for port-a-potties and a guard/educator down there for the last year or so. Its great that the County is helping out.

Merrie Monarch Parade 2008

Originally uploaded by John Dirgo

Great parade!  See lots more photos at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndirgo/

Congratulations to Kalimakuhilani Akemi Kalamanamana Suganuma, winner of the Miss Aloha Hula contest.

44th Merrie Monarch Hula Festival Hilo Hawaii — Halau O Kekuhi #2

Originally uploaded by SparkyLeigh

Its Merrie Monarch week!

Very interesting article about property tax assessments in the Hilo and Puna areas in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald (you may have to register and after another week or so it will be gone).

A couple of quotes:

“Despite declining Big Island real estate values, many landowners are facing higher property taxes — some up 100 percent or more — due to the new way Hawaii County assesses homes, stores and other buildings.

Annual tax notices mailed last week reflect a preliminary 12.2 percent — or $3.2 billion — increase in county-assigned property values.

That means the county stands to collect an extra $25.8 million for the fiscal year starting July 1. New construction accounts for only 3.3 percent, or $7.1 million of the increase, with the rest attributed to higher property tax assessments.”

But one big question comes to mind: why, if values are down a bit?

Stan Sitko, the county’s newly appointed property tax administrator, maintains the timing is right because previous assessments were low and depreciation excessive.

“This year, I took the big step. We recalibrated,” he said regarding how the value of improvements is determined.

“Why are our assessed values still coming up when the market is correcting itself?” Sitko asked in an internal e-mail shared with the Tribune-Herald. “Two very good reasons: Our level lagged far behind the market in 2007 and 2006; and the volume of sales may have gone down in 2007, but the prices didn’t radically drop.”

A couple of things to consider:

Just remember, owner-occupied properties cannot increase in assessed value more than 3% per year. If your homes are owner-occupied (and you bought more than a year ago) they should not be making any dramatic adjustments. KathyH, since you just bought, they may be making an “on-sale”-type adjustment this year, and next year you’ll be subject to the 3% cap — however, I’d still call them and make sure they are assessing properly.

As for not having received it yet — don’t sweat for a while. March 15th (yesterday) was the deadline for the County to mail them — give it a while to get there. Some of us just got them early.

Another note — if your house here is a rental and falls below the “affordable housing” rental rates, you can also file for special tax rates that the County gives to homeowners that provide “affordable housing” to renters. You have to provide a copy of the lease and fill out some forms, and its not a huge amount of money anyway, but its worth knowing. In some cases it makes sense. Hypothetical example — you could rent for $1100 a month, but the affordable rental rate for your house is (for example) $1080. If you dropped the rent to $1075, you might save enough in taxes to more than make up for the lost $25 a month. But then your rental expenses would change and that could have income tax implications…so, its not a simple thing, but you should get the info to be informed.

Homeowners are also assessed at a lower rate (per thousand) than non-owner occupied properties. Live in your home and you can avoid a lot of property tax. I am not kidding when I say that I pay more in property taxes for one lot in Kapoho than I do on my home and that’s been true for years.

Another thing to keep in mind is that (at least for me) the standard homeowner’s exemption is $40,000 but starting in 2005, an additional exemption of 20% of the total assessed value was passed. For example, my exemption is actually almost $70,000 after the 20% was added on. However, this 20% addition may not be law and could be currently granted as a gift from the County Council that they could also take away.

photo credit: HVX Silverstar

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Interesting — it appears that the population on the islands may be shifting a little bit. Today’s Star-Bulletin has this article about some minor population shifts in the islands. What is interesting is the growth of part-time residents. I know I’ve seen signs of this on the Big Island. We have a lot of part-time residents as well as a number of full-time residents that never even considered O’ahu due to crowding, cost and traffic. Many are retirees, so the lower amount of conventional employment is less of a concern.

photo credit: Michael (mx5tx)

A lot of people think that being more “green” in real estate is something that is difficult or can only be done as part of a new construction or major remodeling project. That is far from the truth. Very often, simple things can be done to reduce home energy usage and improve the “greenness” of a house.

For example, I was recently asked about “what would the energy savings be if I replaced the hot water heater with a solar one?” My questions back to them were “do you have an insulating blanket around the existing hot water heater?” and “have you put the hot water heater on a timer so its turned off when you’re not around the house to use hot water?”. The answer to both questions was “no”.

Sometimes the simplest things are great places to start. I’d rather put on an insulating blanket and install a time for (at most) a couple of hundred bucks than to have someone tearing up my roof and spending thousands (even after the tax breaks) on a solar hot water heater. Now when the hot water heater is worn out and its time to replace it, that’s a different story.

Of course, I gave this advice to a number of people BEFORE I bought my own insulating blanket and timer and now our local Home Depot is sold out…darn.

Many things that are great ideas for the mainland don’t apply here in Hawaii (ceiling insulation, heating ducts — what are those?), but the advice of “start with the basics” definitely applies.

On one house I own, I had a solar attic fan installed at a cost of around $600 (it was a few years ago, so forgive me if I have the amount wrong). When the sun hits it, it turns on and sucks hot air out of the attic. The temperature in the house dropped by about 5 degrees immediately. Its not a “cure-all” for hot houses, but it sure helps. And there’s no on-going cost and I expect it to last many years.

Of course, ceiling fans are a way of life in Hawaii – often we have at least one in every room. What I did not know until fairly recently was that older ceiling fans can be quite energy-inefficient. Newer ones are much better. Again, if you don’t have to replace them, the energy savings is probably not enough to justify it, but when it is time to replace one, look for an energy-efficient model.

Speaking of appliances and other durable goods in general, its not the most “green” thing to do to replace anything unless there’s a pre-existing need. To use the ceiling fax example, removing a functional ceiling fan in order to replace it with a more energy-efficent model is probably not a good idea unless you have someone that can use the old fan or you can use it yourself (perhaps in a little-used guest bedroom). To take out the older fan and have it end up in a landfill defeats the purpose.

I often hear of people replacing the main refrigerator in the house with an EnergyStar model and then taking the old one out to the garage or carport and using it a secondary or “beer” fridge. Again, that kind of defeats the purpose – you now have the old energy-inefficient model AND the new one both running. It would be better to have one, larger, energy-efficient fridge.

If you haven’t encountered it yet, FreeCycle is an amazing thing where you can offer up, for free (and only for free) anything you have that may be working, but you no longer need. The person wanting it will usually pick it up (or at least meet you at a convenient location), get the item and put it into use. Less in the landfill is always “green”. Check it out at http://www.freecycle.org.

Just a few tips to make life in your existing home a little “greener”.