AGENT MLS HOME FINDER

Maui real estate has faced a series of problems throughout the last calendar year, beginning well before the advent of the actual nationwide recession, and culminating with a series of current negative developments.  Maui seems to have had more high-profile failures than its status as the third most populous  island in the Aloha State would seem to suggest, and has also been dealing with problems that are more common throughout Hawaii, such as high foreclosure rates and decreased property values and home sales. Maui was one of the hardest hit of the four substantially populated Hawaiian Islands, although even the damage caused to the Valley Island pales in comparison with that wrought in devastated mainland communities such as Las Vegas, Nevada.

One especially prominent symbol of the unfortunate state of real estate on Maui is the fate of the Maui Prince Hotel. The Maui Prince Hotel, a property worth more than half a billion dollars, is facing an impending foreclosure, according to a September 9, 2009 article that made national news in the Wall Street Journal.  The piece, co-authored by Kris Hudson and Anton Troianovski, stated that “Maui Prince Hotel is the target of foreclosure proceedings and the cancellation of a management contract just two years after a Morgan Stanley real estate fund and local developers bought it for $575 million.” A September 10, 2009 article in the Maui Weekly took a slightly more upbeat approach, citing the economic outlook provided at a meeting in the Maui Beach Hotel.

The experts at this meeting had a reservedly optimistic view, as reporter Sarah Ruppenthal noted. She continued to write that “Laney also noted that some positive trends, such as new commercial and residential construction projects, workforce development efforts, and soaring enrollment at Maui Community College.” Laney’s points were cast in a somewhat different light by a September 4, 2009 article by the Pacific Business News, which stated that “A new economic forecast for Maui says recovery will be gradual and the pace will depend on the return of the affluent West Coast vacationers who drove the island’s growth through the 2000s.”