FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Your views

Letters reveal simmering
class divide

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Spike in Hawaii housing prices was predictable, will continue

I bought my home in Kailua in 2000, anticipating that this was going to happen. It took four trips to find something reasonable.

Three major factors are all coming together at the same time here in Hawaii. First, interest rates dropped from 8.5 percent to a record low of 5 percent, and people ultimately buy on monthly payments, not on price. Two, the baby boomers are using this as an opportunity to get out of the rat race in mainland cites, either by refinancing or selling their homes that they live in. Three, the economy in Hawaii has corrected, and then some.

All three of these impending and foreseeable circumstances led me to fly to Hawaii four times from 1998 to 2000, to purchase a home on Oahu, and on the Big Island as my future retirement home. This is just the beginning. There are 75 million baby boomers ready to retire, and looking to leave places like Los Angeles and other cities that have demographic problems with infrastructure, housing costs, traffic, etc.

I love Hawaii and everything about it. The challenges are there, to be sure. We just have to remember who we are and help each other whenever possible.

The Legislature also has to perform and think "outside the box," and that is a really tough thing to do. I give them a lot of credit for their efforts so far! Aloha.

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Richard and Harolyn Morgenstein now have five other family members -- including, from left, grandchildren Shawn, 3, Kamalani, 5, and Sheaves Slate, 6 -- living in their rented two-bedroom Pearl City townhome due to the housing crunch. "Investment purchasing needs to stop, our government has to create laws to tax these people to hinder the process," Harolyn Morgenstein wrote. "Where are the working-class people supposed to live?"

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Working-class renters suffer due to mainlanders, military

"Aloha." I believe our overuse of this word has created our housing market. Many people have come to Hawaii to visit our home and decided to stay. It is sad because the local people shared their love and aloha to welcome all. If we only knew that one day we would be pushed off of the land by the visitors whom we welcomed.

My daughter, who works part time at Circuit City, and her boyfriend, who is a union carpenter, had to move from their home because it was sold last month. They are now frantically looking for a home to rent and for the time being are residing with us in a two-bedroom townhouse with their three children.

My husband works for a private contractor that signed a 55-year lease with the federal government to manage various military bases and housing units on Oahu. His guaranteed job earns him more than $50,000 a year (and we still cannot afford to buy a home). After 10 years of working, I got ill and was laid off from my job. I am working at the state Capitol until the session ends. We just make ends meet.

The military families complain about the housing units they reside in, but they have a choice. Units on base are reserved strictly for their occupancy. How would they like to choose from the limited sources we have available as civilians? Many military families have chosen to rent off base because they can save some of the money that is given to them as living allowance, therefore taking up housing for civilians. We are not able to go on base and rent the many empty unoccupied units on base.

Someone needs to seriously look into this situation and investigate why they are not required to live on base. It's not fair that they take up our housing units if there are homes available on base.

We have been informed that the landlord intends to sell our rented townhouse. Wailuna sold townhouses in the mid-1980s for around $80,000 a unit; now they are on the market for $400,000. The people are purchasing the units for amounts above the asking price. Investment purchasing needs to stop; our government has to create laws to tax these people to hinder the process. Where are the working-class people suppose to live?

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Onerous capital-gains tax bite keeps this owner from selling

My story is perhaps a bit different from most, since I own a house I want to sell immediately but cannot.

I have owned this house since 1984, and most of that time it has been a rental property. If I sell this house now, I will have to pay a very large federal capital gains tax plus a state capital gains tax. I cannot afford to lose that much money since this property is my nest egg for old age.

I know I can move into this house and live in it for two years and that way escape these horrific taxes. But who knows what the market may be in two years plus, since I cannot move into the house until the current rental lease is up? The time frame is about 2 1/2 years before I can sell.

In addition, I do not want to live in this house for two years, as I am well settled elsewhere on Oahu.

I know of nothing we can do about the federal capital gains tax, but we can do something about the state capital gains tax as well as other high taxes in Hawaii.

Raising the state excise tax (with its pyramiding) is the wrong way to go because that will make housing even more unaffordable and effect the low-wage earners the most. We need to change the law and make it a sales tax (like most states) instead of an excise tax.

Our current excise tax is a hidden tax, and many citizens do not understand that. That is what makes it so insidious: Hidden taxes are designed to fool our citizens. Honorable men and women do not impose hidden taxes.

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Native Hawaiian in Oklahoma disgusted by greed in isles

As a native Hawaiian, I am sickened by the greed that has imposed itself upon my homeland. I also understand why, when islanders visit our three-bedroom, two-bath, tri-level home with fireplace, they refer to it as "Wow!"

Appraised at a modest $160,000, I thought they were joking when informed that our home would go for $900,000-plus in Hawaii's market. Your articles confirmed it.

Wake up, Hawaii. I can now hear your death knell more clearly!

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Renters at the bottom of heap in current isle housing market

I am a renter, and it seems that renters are on the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the rising housing market.

My family and I have rented all our 20-something years because in the first place we can not afford to purchase a home.

Our children are graduating college (through financial assistance), and one is still living with us. My husband has a mental disability that has hindered him in keeping a job. I have been the sole breadwinner in our family for most of the time, and we live literally paycheck to paycheck.

Recently, the apartment complex where we live was sold. The buyer fixed it up very nicely on the outside but of course will only fix the inside after tenants move. Some did move because of the rise in rent, and their apartments were made looking new.

It seems the new tenants will get the full benefit of the raise in rent while those who opt to stay will not. Our rent was raised and it's been a struggle. Temporarily we are getting help from a relative, but we can't depend on it forever. I am seriously looking at getting another job but hate to do it in case of times when my husband would get ill and I wouldn't be able to take off to help him.

I am thankful we are not homeless, and feel for those out there because of the lack of affordable housing and apartment rentals. It seems as if the rich do get richer and the poor get poorer. It's a tough market out there even for those who are able to look for a new home; everything is rising.

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Parents, thankfully, helped buy Makiki condo couple still loves

My husband and I had gotten married in March 1984. In November 1984 my father passed away. He was always the type who said that he bought his house on his own and I could do the same. My mother, on the other hand, thought it was ridiculous to make the landlord rich. She always felt that she should give me a hand-up by either putting down a down payment or actually buying a place for me. But because my father was a typical "samurai" type, she just let things slide.

After my father died, I approached my mother and asked if she would be willing to help my husband and I buy a place -- nothing fancy, something just to get our foot in the door. She said fine, but only on one condition. My father never believed in leasehold property, so if I wanted her to help me, it would have to be fee simple.

We looked around and found a condo that was fee simple, in a convenient location, and was reasonably priced.

We're still in the same condo 20 years later. It's a little cramped because we have one daughter. We enclosed the lanai and converted it into a bedroom for her.

People say why don't we sell -- we could make a huge profit, take the money and buy a larger place. But everything else is so expensive, this location is convenient and since both my husband and I are in our 50s and have retirement and college tuition facing us, we don't want to dig ourselves deeper into debt.

We were very lucky to have bought when we did AND to have parents and in-laws who were willing and able to help with the down payment.

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Taking the plunge pays off for happy Makaha homeowner

I guess I must have gotten real lucky. Briefly, I had been in a rental unit (a very small two-bedroom, one-bath plantation house) fronting Kamehameha Highway in Kaneohe, paying $1,050 a month. The landlord would only give a six-month lease.

Into the seventh month, the landlord increased the rent by $100, although no renovations were done. I note that the pipes in the unit were so old (more than 50 years old) that rats clogged the lines, causing the toilet and bath to back up and having to be snaked on a regular basis. Angered over the $100 increase, I responded to an ad in the paper saying, "I can make you a homeowner."

At first, I though was a scam, but it turned out to be true. It cost $35 for a credit report, $1,000 for the escrow deposit, and I was able to get an80Ž20 mortgage. Took two months, but for $225,000, I closed on and moved into a roomy three-bedroom, two-bath house in Makaha (built in 1987) with a new roof.

Shortly after my offer was accepted, I was informed that a similar house across the street was listed at $265,000. Now instead of paying a greedy landlord $1,150, for a few dollars more, I own my own much larger home. The trade-off is the commute, but express bus service is excellent from Makaha.

P.S. The new tenant who rented the Kam Highway unit is paying $1,200 a month; my first mortgage payment is $1,237 a month.