The current median price of a single family home in Hawaii $675,000. The median famiily income (from 2013 ACS Census Data) is $68,000. How can any family afford to purchase a home with this type of median?
This is where short sales homes becomes so important. This gives people the ability to acquire the American dream for somewhat of a discounted price. Problem is, the lender/bank/investor is not regulated to make this process go quickly. The average short sale puchase is roughly 8-12 months. During that wait time so many factors can take place which ultimately add more time to the overall process. For example, the house may go into foreclosure adding legal issues, HOA fees are defaulted thus HOA takes possesion of the home or issues a lien on the house, new appraisals after 6 months that could adversely change the purchase price, interest rates fluctuating which could affect the buyers loan, etc. Meanwhile, during all of time, much of it is with ZERO activity, and the buyer and the seller sit in turmoil waiting to close the purchase. None of which they are in control of.
Based on the current short sale real estate on the market (as of 11/6/14), the average days on the market is ~200 days for a short sale. There is no real true understanding why the lender/bank/investor takes their sweet time in the process. The house is sitting, the lendor/bank/investor loses money, the buyer gets worse into debt, and the seller is absolutely frustrated. The only answer is "that's just the way it is".
Hawaii needs to regulate this.
