Condos

So I went through the trouble of trying to purchase a new condo development. I say "trying" because in all seriousness, it's almost impossible for a single person to purchase property here in Hawaii where even a single-bedroom condo typically exceeds $300k.

So without going into the nasty details, I had the opportunity to get a new luxury condo apartment at about 20% below market value. Yeah that might sound great, but even then just a 1 bedroom condo ranged between $275k - $309k. I know there are probably a lot of places in our country where that money could buy me a mansion and several acres of land. /sigh.

Plus if you read the fine print, I couldn't turn around and sell this condo to someone else within 2 years and any equity I earn when I DO sell it has to be shared with the association. So it's a program completely designed for someone who wants to live in the place long-term.

Long story short, the loan folks told me I had awesome credit and everything, but I just didn't meet the terms of this specific project. Which is just as well, the terms of this purchase made these condominiums terrible as an investment. They were selling these cheap units purely to fulfill some obscure State requirement to sell so many units to lower income local residence so people won't complain that Hawaii is being completely bought out by the Japanese.

I'm both relieved that I don't have to deal with the pressure of paying a huge mortgage, and a little depressed there aren't more affordable housing yet for first-time home buyers in Hawaii.