Hawaii's High End Real Estate Market
Hawaii is made up of a number of islands Oahu, Maui, and Molokai just to name a few.  With a healthy economy and population continuing to rise the islands in Hawaii have been rampant with housing aimed at baby boomers, retirees, and anyone with the resources take advantage of the increasing options in luxury residential living that the ever changing island landscapes are offering.  Condominiums have recently sprouted but not on the scale of other growing urban areas.  The Moana Pacific between Waikiki beach and downtown Honolulu is currently under construction and won't open until early 2006.  It's a 46 story condo development, scheduled to offer 706 units.  Developers offered 95 units prior to ground breaking with one bedrooms starting at $310,000 and penthouse units running as high as $3.8 million.  With recent demand developers are content with taking their initiative as far as they can go. Initial offerings at the  Moana Pacific prompted would be buyers "to camp out a week before they went on sale." A "shanty town of tents and tarp covered sidewalks" was formed as everyone from "surfer dudes," elderly retirees, and upwardly mobile electrical engineers lined up hoping to buy a piece of paradise. The mad rush didn't happen overnight but the "willingness, the allure" for homeowners to drop down a sizable amount of money for their "piece of paradise" has been the reason why they have come and built for a long, long time.  Baby boomers and wealthy retirees originally came to stake their claim in properties.  They are still coming and so are younger buyers with more discretionary incomes who have built $10 million dollar mansions on Keawakapu Beach, Maui.  where "understated cottages and ranch homes" once lined the shore.       Doug and Mary Hajjar arrived in Maui in 1997 and began constructing their dream home, "a winter get away" at a cost of about $5 million.  Not everyone dropped down millions of dollars to build their vacation or retirement home in 1997, not everyone could or still can buy according to today's standards.  The house that the Hajjars built includes a pool six bedrooms, "an aqua shingle roof, a winding glass staircase and  a 60 inch TV that disappears into the family room floor." Today the 6,000 square foot home would sell for $15 million or more, just one aspect of how the market has blossomed.  There more recent examples with similar results with "coveted beach front property in Maui like the Hajjar's" increasing by even higher multiples.        Jeff and June Mair are another couple who made the most of a beach front property on Maui in 2001.  The Mairs originally constructed  a 4,800 square foot home at a cost of $2.95 million just four years ago."  We bought the land for  $1.55 million" and " a month later we could've sold it for $2 million."  That was their response four years ago.  The house is now valued at over $7million dollars. Hawaii seems to be at that middle of the road ground where those who purchased or constructed properties within the past few years are reaping sizable returns on their appreciation rather quickly.  Despite the activity, the property and the growth there are some observers that feel everything isn't perfect in many a man made "piece of paradise" with the natural Hawaiian landscape as a back drop.        Property values have continued to rise as resort developments, mansions, and beach fronts have been changed forever. The majority of housing landscapes now reflect " a Newport Beach mentality, "a hodgepodge of the million, multi-million custom made homes, spacious cottages and ranch style homes found on beach fronts and backdrops of the islands.  Choice offerings have evolved to satisfy nearly every budget and every desire.  The rampant and unrestrained developments that now dot the island's once pristine landscapes can only become more numerous.  A "27,800 square foot orange stucco mansion designed be Mexican Architect Ricardo Legoretta now stands like a beacon across the shore line" signifying not only a new era in the housing market but a new era in the history of the islands where it is changing as quickly as its view changes with the speed and amount of development.