----you said- "My understanding is the mortgage business has been doing quite well though..." ----and my question was/is
But who is doing the buying? ......and the answer is ....
mainland buyers (?)
You have your locals who were paying 10% or greater for a mortgage on Oahu...and then all of the sudden were given the option of refinancing with 5-6% rates...
Its been the same all over the US. The property never changed hands really, just refinanced...
The same holds true for any commericial property (mainly only around Honolulu area)...
Added up it results in millions and even billions of dollars in savings...People can own their homes outright in half the time in some cases with a refinance.
Then you have the people who were priced out before all wanting to buy...among the local community...
But in Hawaii probably one of the biggest factors aside from the refinance boom is mainland speculators. They go in and build 2nd and third homes hoping at some future date to unload them.
People were able to build rental properties for example at next to nothing....
Basically that game of speculation is one of the biggest by far factors.
Some people live in Houston, but say bought second homes in Hawaii, but have an investment slant to them...
In the US economy there is a whole lot of idle cash sitting around. People didn't want to put it in the stock market so they turned to real estate...
And thats pretty much how it goes...
So you have the locals who refinance, or buy....that doesn't represent organic growth but it does present lots of opportunity for paper (finance term) to change hands etc....
The real organic growth in Hawaii's real estate is most assuredly coming from the Mainland... and not just California...
Its across the board from Houston to New York to Seattle...They are using it as an alternative investment vehicle...