Welcome to 2008's Oahu Real Estate Market! We all know about the crazy things happening in the mainland in the residential housing market. Hawaii's residential market is not doing nearly as bad as the mainland and prices are trying to hold up here. This is due to several reasons, which are all to be written about in upcoming posts.
When it comes to Oahu Farms and Ranches, they do not follow the same appreciating pricing logic as Honolulu residential property. Oahu Farms and Ranches are more like Oahu commercial properties and with commercial properties, their value only increases when the amount of money they throw off month-to-month goes up. If beef prices were way down due to Mad Cow or a Vegetarian Revolution or for whatever reason, the value of a cattle ranch would also drop. The opposite is true if beef prices sharply increase.
There is a line of thought in Real Estate called, "Highest and Best Use." You see it all over Honolulu today. If you have a farm or ranch that is just sitting there being nonproductive, its value as such would be very low. However, what if that open land would be an exc
ellent place for a shopping mall and a couple of High Rise Condominium Buildings? You have just vastly increased the amount of money that that parcel of land can generate month-to-month and therefore, increased its value. You have also applied its Highest and Best Use to it.
This scenario really only holds true if it's really just a farm or ranch. If it has a beautiful Oahu High-End Home on it, where the home might have a value of 2 Million Dollars plus, there is a High End Residential Market in hawaii that operates separately from the normal Honolulu residential market. It is true that there are relatively few buyers in this market, but these buyers come from all over the world to find Hawaii's special properties.
Worldwide buyers for high-end property are a very good thing, especially when the US Dollar (USD) is on sale against most major currencies. This too is a topic for another post.
In the past I have been asked to break up large posts, so I will. Next time, I will give you a list of Investing terms for Real Estate.
Cheers-
Mike

Michael and Gayle,
We have a new publication called Ranch Properties--Great Western edition. We direct-mail it to 40,000 of the most affluent people in the U.S. and get great results for the agents/brokers that we work with currently. I'd be happy to mail you a sample magazine if you'd like to see it.
Thanks,
Pat Kirby