Lets take a look at this situation in California and then compare it to Hawaii.  In this article you have banks holding open houses before the foreclosure auctions, getting home inspections ordered, Seller’s Disclosure statements filled out, title reports pulled, and taking discounted prices for properties etc. etc.  They do the necessary work to get the Buyer as much information on the property as possible so they feel comfortable purchasing the property at the auction.

These banks and builders want the properties off the books.  We call this blood in the water.  The sharks begin to appear shortly afterwards.   This is when good deals are to be had in the foreclosure market. 

Compare that to what is currently going on in Hawaii’s market.  I went to DR Horton’s new project in Makakilo the other day and they have sold out their current enitre inventory that is being offered.  Castle & Cooke’s Mililani Mauka, has 5 homes left in the entire development.  There are 5 homes available in their Makakilo project that is ready for move-in.  I asked the DR Horton representative if they expected their next phase sales prices to remain the same, decrease or increase, and he said, “they have sold all of their current inventory and prices may be a little higher on the next phase due to the way the current sales are going.”

Read also, Are Foreclosures Really A Good Buy?  In this article you see Lenders of foreclosure property are not very cooperative right now.  They don’t hold open houses prior to the flag-pole auction, no documentation, etc.  In fact, most lenders set a minimum bid price for the property, and if no one is willing to bid above that price then the bank takes the property and puts it on the market for sale with a Realtor (REO).  Most instances, no one ever gets to bid because the bank set the price higher than anyone was willing to go.  The market has been good enough for them to get more for the property this way. This isn’t exactly a sign of desperation by lenders.

So what am I saying?  Hawaii foreclosures aren’t a great deal at this time, our foreclosure numbers aren’t bad and our real estate market has been doing pretty well in comparison..and this contrasts the comment made by KimoMakano Username at the bottom of the article written about Hawaii foreclosures which says:

I have been following the housing market for a few years since we sold our condo and find it interesting to read the “economists” projections and reports and the articles by the “journalists”. It seems like they are quite slanted towards a rosy picture rather that a realistic view of what is going on.  For the first couple of years they predicted continued gains in the housing market (because Hawaii is different): the market actually stalled.
Then they predicted a flat to small increase in the market: the market continued to stall and began a decline.  Then they predicted a possible small decline but few foreclosures: the decline continued and foreclosures doubled. It almost makes you wonder who these guys are writing for?