The New York Times reports the amount being forgiven averages $150,000 per homeowner, and that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) said it could mean a monthly savings of up to 35 percent on a mortgage payment.

The Times reports Bank of America plans to contact more than 200,000 homeowners that may qualify for the reduction by the third quarter of this year.

Pacific Business News
Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 6:51am HST

This awesome 2 bedroom 2 bath condo of 1197 sq. ft. is just steps from the pool area. Lowest priced Condo in Keauhou Punahele, at $269,000 FS, It is priced to sell! New carpet and paint, and low maintenance fees. Don’t miss this one! Call Delania at 808-989-3227 for showings.

            Hawaii Paradise Properties will be taking place in the National Open House this weekend. There has been a lot of buzz about this event and we expect to see many  buyers out and about. If you are looking at homes this weekend, be sure to stop by and see us, we’ll have two properties open on Saturday and Sunday from 12-5. You can visit us here: Ilio Holo Kai and Keauhou Punahele. If you have any questions feel free to call Delania 808-989-3227.

Currently serving both buyers & sellers on Oahu & East Big Island of Hawaii.

Earllyn Ebbert, RA, ABR, GRI

808-291-4934

Four bills are being considered by  the Hawaii legislature that target off-island  owners of vacation rental properties. Senate bills (SB2078, SB2089) and House bills (HB1706, HB1707) require off-island owners of vacation rental properties to turn over the management of their rental property to some form of on-island licensed real estate broker or salesperson, managing agent, rental agent, or condominium hotel operator. Curiously, local, on-island owners of vacation rental properties are exempted from the bills and their provisions.

It is noted that the reason for this proposed legislation is for tax compliance, but where is the proof that there is not currently tax compliance? Where is the data coming from? If this law does somehow pass, how will that affect off-island folks who intended to purchase vacation rental properties here? Will they decide that it would serve them best to go elsewhere? With the available internet sites which assist owners in vacation rentals, why do they need a local management company, which will be just another expense?

I for one, am hoping this bill does not pass. If it is not broken, don’t fix it.

By Howard Dicus   hawaiinewsnow.com

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The lowest gasoline prices in Hawaii, at discount stations on Oahu, are now over $4 a gallon, while gasoline is now selling for well over $5 a gallon on Molokai.

Hawaii residents generally have shorter commutes than mainlanders do, but they pay some of the highest per gallon gasoline prices in the nation, and here, as in the rest of the country, pump prices tend to follow crude oil price trends about 60 days behind.

The cheapest gas prices in the state, at Lex Brodie’s Tire Co., hit $4 a gallon over the President’s Day holiday weekend, while the AAA Fuel Gauge average price of Oahu regular topped $4.12 a gallon, up 18 cents in the past month.

That is also roughly how much the lower prices on the mainland have risen in the past month, although California prices have ascended at a much steeper rate, bringing the average prices in San Francisco close to parity with Honolulu.

AAA commissions its fuel price data from Washington D.C.-based Oil Price Information Service, which electronically harvests the last credit card transaction of the evening from thousands of selected self-serve stations across the United States.

In Hawaii, OPIS checks Honolulu ($4.122 Monday), Hilo ($4.445) and Wailuku ($4.432). Hilo, the county seat on the Big Island, is usually about a dime cheaper than Wailuku, the county seat on Maui, but Maui prices have risen only a nickel in the past month.

Hawaii gasoline comes from two refineries, both in Campbell Industrial Park in West Oahu, one owned by Tesoro Corp. and the other by Chevron Corp. Middlemen will occasionally bypass the refineries to order a tanker shipment of gasoline that has been refined someplace else.

Prices are higher in Hawaii because it is a small market with relatively little competition, because the refineries buy a higher grade of crude to more readily produce jet fuel, and because retailers have higher rent payments to make due to Hawaii’s higher real estate values.

Copyright 2012 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

What an unusual week in real estate. We have a new escrow and the seller would not budge on the asking price, so our buyer had to increase the offer. We have another buyer who made an offer of $5000 over asking price on a desirable neighborhood, and got beat out by a higher offer. Also one of our local escrow companies announced that they are hiring again for the first time in quite a while.

No need to fret for the state of Hawaii tourism anymore.

Visitor numbers to the Aloha State dropped dramatically during the recession, and the state’s tourism industry suffered another blow when an earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year stifled the flow of big-spending Japanese vacationers to the islands.

But tourism in Hawaii is rebounding fast, with the state welcoming nearly 7.3 million visitors in 2011. Although that is still short of the state’s record year in 2006, officials expect continued growth this year.

Tourism statistics released Jan. 30 showed that the state’s visitor count last year was up almost 4 percent over 2010. Better yet, vacationers spent $12.58 billion in 2011, a 15.6 percent increase over 2010 and the second-highest total in state history.

"We’ve seen a healthy demand for Hawaii globally," said Mike McCartney, president of the state-run Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Hawaii’s tourism officials have helped their cause by promoting the islands to countries with surging economies, whose strong currency buys more in the U.S. As a result, Hawaii in 2011 drew 32 percent more tourists from Australia, nearly 30 percent more from China and 7 percent more visitors from Brazil compared with the year before, according to tourism officials.

"We moved toward a global marketing strategy," McCartney said. "We took our core and we took off on it."

Hawaii visitor numbers peaked in 2006 at almost 7.7 million. During the economic meltdown, tourists cut back on spending and visitor numbers to Hawaii plunged nearly 15 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. But things turned around as Hawaii’s tourism numbers grew each year after that.

The western United States remains the greatest source of Hawaii’s visitors, accounting for more than 35 percent of tourists, while the eastern U.S. generates 26 percent of the state’s visitors. Japanese tourists made up about 17 percent of visitors last year, down from 18 percent in 2010. Canadian visitors are the next biggest group, representing about 7 percent of Hawaii’s tourists, according to the tourism authority.

Many of those visitors are opening their wallets wide. The average visitor spent $1,727 per visit in 2011, up from $1,550 the year before, according to the authority.

To help draw new visitors, Hawaii’s tourism authority spent about $6 million in 2011 to help airlines research and promote the most profitable routes to Hawaii. That is an increase from the $5 million the agency spent on airline routes in 2010.

Hawaiian Airlines, the largest carrier to the state, recently announced a partnership with JetBlue Airways to fly out of JetBlue’s gates at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The move will give East Coast tourists direct flights to Hawaii starting in June.

The airline also increased flights in December from Sydney, Australia, to Honolulu from five flights a week to daily service. Hawaiian Airlines also plans to increase its direct flights from Seoul to Honolulu from four times a week to daily, starting in July.

Hawaiian Airlines executives say they have worked with Hawaii’s tourism officials to build and promote new routes. But they have always been confident that Hawaii’s tourism industry would remain strong, regardless of short-term slumps.

In 2008, when visitor numbers to Hawaii began to drop, Hawaiian Airlines committed to spending $8 billion on new planes to meet future tourism demand to the island.

The airline plans in April to replace its Boeing 767-300 planes that fly from Osaka, Japan, to Honolulu with new Airbus A330 jets that are equipped with 30 more seats per aircraft. The move will add nearly 11,000 seats annually on the route.

"We work on long-term trends," said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian Airlines’ president and chief executive. "We try to look forward over a decade or two."

Thanks to the resurgence of visitors, occupancy levels at Hawaiian hotels surged from a low of 67 percent in March 2009 to 77 percent during the week that ended Jan. 7, according to Smith Travel Research. Average room rates during that period rose from $182 in 2009 to $238 in January.

"2011 was a better year than the prior two years," said Chris Tatum, vice president for Marriott International Inc., which operates nine hotels in Hawaii.

He noted that Hawaii has welcomed many Korean tourists since the U.S. waived the need for South Koreans to obtain a visa to visit.

"The efforts we’ve been having in promoting Hawaii in Korea have had an impact, and when you throw in the visa waiver program and the improving economy, we are excited about the potential from Korea," Tatum said.

Walt Disney Co. is also benefiting from the resurgence in tourism by opening in August the Aulani Disney Resort and Spa, an $800-million development on 21 acres in Oahu. The resort offers 300 hotel rooms and 350 time-share units that include amenities such as kitchens and living rooms. The resort expects to open an additional 400 time-share units by 2013.

Disney executives declined to disclose occupancy rates at the resort but said it had a "very busy holiday season."

"We are really happy with the number of visitors we have been seeing," spokeswoman Nikki Moreno said.

Tourists who have visited Hawaii recently said they have noticed an unusually high number of international tourists and exceptional service from waiters, bellhops and other workers, who seem grateful to welcome visitors back to the islands.

Stephanie LaPorte, a Monrovia resident who visited Hawaii with her family in June, said the beaches were packed but she had no trouble getting through the crowds at the airport.

"I’d go back every year if I could," she said. "It’s always beautiful there."

Stephan Pollack, a public relations executive who visited Honolulu in October for business, said he shared his hotel with lots of foreign visitors during his latest visit.

"I noticed Japanese, Canadians and Italians," he said. "In all, it was a great trip."