Yeah, we sure are lucky to live in Hawaii.

I can see it with the drop in tourism.

Even though NV is ranked #5, they have lots who are also moving in. I think Koyosaki is basing this of home listings. In NV, about 46% of homes listed have zero offers. This excludes condo listings.  This tells me that buyers are holding until the prices reduce more.  Home prices went up about 30% in 2020 when CA people were moving into NV and bidding wars were happening cause "it's cheaper than CA" was their mentality.  So now the market is stabilizing and going down. 

Compare this to HI, where there is no "correction".  Add in maint fees for condos.  I saw 1 listing in Makiki that's been sitting for 2 years now. A 1200sq foot unit is going for $250K, which is unheard of. It should be going for $800K.  But then I looked into the why, their maintanance fee is like $5K.  So your mortgage, plus an additonal $5K a month.  Means you can buy over a $1,000,000 house. So why buy this unit.

I"ve always been with the school of thought that Hawaii should have never banked solely on the Tourism industry.

Of course my thoughts are skewed from the fact that I am retired and the events happening today would not affect my job since I don't have one.

I can certainly understand others not sharing the same view as mine.

I"ve always been with the school of thought that Hawaii should have never banked solely on the Tourism industry.

....
Exactly....
Back in the 60's and 70's, myself, all my siblings, and many of my classmates moved away from Maui because we didn't want to work in hotels. But hindsight is 20-20. That's why you need to have psychic powers to be a politician nowadays. The general public is accustomed to instant gratification. But building and running a city is not a video game.

I have a good friend living in MS, the #2 on the list and a gun nut.  He ain't feeling it as he is self employed and makes about $150k a year.  Not much to not like if you were born there, super lenient gun laws, one of the lowest cost of living and making about 4 times the average salary.  He is the one that will send me just about anything I want that he can legally buy there.  But of course, no one on here breaks the law.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/04/22/new-affordable-housing-rental-complex-opens-makiki/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ0uylleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETE4ZEkzZkdTaVpJbjJtbUxSAR5UPVy8a_Y6gyDjJvWfXibKHcQcD2-yrsDFlLYVtiLqXI2ayEYiLJCiuPCEag_aem_3rBeeqXtXVTEg-H_8kVTdQ

$1900 for a studio is "affordable".

I"ve always been with the school of thought that Hawaii should have never banked solely on the Tourism industry.

Of course my thoughts are skewed from the fact that I am retired and the events happening today would not affect my job since I don't have one.

I can certainly understand others not sharing the same view as mine.

   Yeah, like we should have relied more on our manufacturing and technical services ? 
But I could never understand why agricultural never took top billing with our year round growing season.
Don't say its cuz we gotta ship overseas, were doing that from other countries already.

   I too am now retired,(from the tourist industry due to the VR thing) but would love to have continued working.
I know many others who managed, cleaned, landscaped or repaired many of these property's who were put out of work waaay before retirement, I was lucky as well as prepared.
VR owners I knew took care of their property's to make them more desirable.
That's painters, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, pest removal and such now also with less work.

   Don't want to hear "but they took housing from residents".
Unless you were able to afford one of these multi-million $ homes, no loss
If you coulda, ya woulda.
Mind you I did/do not agree that "affordable homes" should not be used as VR's

     Take a look at how less visitors and tourism dollars have affected the state and unemployment rates in the past 3  years due to the VR laws.
Below you see almost a million less visitors and a couple Billion dollars 2022-2024

2024:
Visitor Arrivals (January - August): 6.4 million
Visitor Arrivals (January - November): 8.78 million
Total Visitor Spending (January - November): $18.64 billion
2023:
Total Visitor Arrivals: 9.64 million
Total Visitor Spending: $20.78 billion
2022:
Total Visitor Arrivals: 9.23 million
Total Visitor Spending: $19.70 billion

Earlier years show even more but hard to find 

JMHO (tho somewhat opiniated  )

   Yeah, like we should have relied more on our manufacturing and technical services ? 
But I could never understand why agricultural never took top billing with our year round growing season.
Don't say its cuz we gotta ship overseas, were doing that from other countries already.

   I too am now retired,(from the tourist industry due to the VR thing) but would love to have continued working.
I know many others who managed, cleaned, landscaped or repaired many of these property's who were put out of work waaay before retirement, I was lucky as well as prepared.
VR owners I knew took care of their property's to make them more desirable.
That's painters, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, pest removal and such now also with less work.

   Don't want to hear "but they took housing from residents".
Unless you were able to afford one of these multi-million $ homes, no loss
If you coulda, ya woulda.
Mind you I did/do not agree that "affordable homes" should not be used as VR's

     Take a look at how less visitors and tourism dollars have affected the state and unemployment rates in the past 3  years due to the VR laws.
Below you see almost a million less visitors and a couple Billion dollars 2022-2024

2024:
Visitor Arrivals (January - August): 6.4 million
Visitor Arrivals (January - November): 8.78 million
Total Visitor Spending (January - November): $18.64 billion
2023:
Total Visitor Arrivals: 9.64 million
Total Visitor Spending: $20.78 billion
2022:
Total Visitor Arrivals: 9.23 million
Total Visitor Spending: $19.70 billion

Earlier years show even more but hard to find 

JMHO (tho somewhat opiniated  )

An economy is a complex animal.  it's important to identify the top 3 sectors in an entire state that can make or break the economy. 

In our state, there are about 129,000 government employees. 
In leisure and hospitality, there are about 123,100 employees. 
Trade, Transportation, and Utilities accounts for 116,900 employees.

Those are the top 3 categories in terms of employment numbers.  Given that government only spends our money and doesn't generate any revenue, maybe we need to reevaluate how this state is being run economically.


https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.hi.htm#eag_hi.f.3

I think getting rid of our Democratically run city, county and state government would be a great start.

   Yeah, like we should have relied more on our manufacturing and technical services ? 
But I could never understand why agricultural never took top billing with our year round growing season.

Took a class about chocolate and how HI does have the perfect weather.  But shipping cost and paying min wage, benefits, etc...all cause the cost to increase.  So it's cheaper to have them grown in South America.

Spoke to a regional manager at a Panera Bread.  They won't come to Hawaii because they use fresh local produce.  HI won't be able to keep up with what they need for the Hawaii stores.  It sounds like their goal would be to open multiple Panera Breads and not just 1 store.

Gambling seems to be the only other option that shipping won't hurt us as much.  But our lawmakers refuse to allow it for BS reasons.  We are 1 of 2 states with zero forms of gambling. THe other being Utah for obvious reasons. The Mormon Church only recently allowed the consumption of caffeine.