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73-5620 Kauhola St. #3
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
www.kitchencabinetshawaii.com
kci@aloha.net
West Hawaii Real Estate | August 17, 2018 15
Consulting Sales/Leasing Services Property Management
TYLER BUILDING
74-5622 Alapa St.
Kailua Kona, HI 96740
Only 1 offi ce left
588 sq. ft.
is the leading full-service Commercial Real Estate fi rm on
the Big Island. TCG is looking for potential qualifi ed tenants
as well as commercial property owners who need leasing
services for their property or a Leasing Agent and Property
Manager. They also offer consulting services for commercial
real estate issues.
Monique Peacock, (PB)
• Consulting
• Sales/Leasing Services
• Property Management
is the leading full-service Commercial Real Estate firm on
the Big Island. TCG is looking for potential qualified tenants
as well as commercial property owners who need leasing
services for their property or a Leasing Agent and Property
Manager. They also offer consulting services for commercial
real estate issues. Monique Peacock, (PB)
PO Box 908, Kailua-Kona, HI 96745 • Offi ce (808) 329-1111
www.TCGKona.com • mp@TCGKona.com
payment will
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Mexicans
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Stetson for my
mom. My
responsibility for
Waimea
one-ofa
quarter mile—
the yurt,
the Ohia
view!
clients
home or
the
Corporation,
with
Companies
reach
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the house payments when the Hunt-
Wesson plant shut down in 1997. And
after clean-air regulations at the Port
of Los Angeles put my dad out of
work, I stepped in for some years.
But they never missed a payment,
never took out a loan or refinanced.
While friends and family bought
second homes or moved into flashier
digs that they couldn’t afford, my parents
stayed put; some of their friends
ended up losing everything.
Their diligence paid off: Zillow
says that if my parents sold their casa
today, they could get $563,000.
But they’re not going to sell —
they can’t afford anything better on
the market today.
Now I’m near the same age when
my parents became homeowners.
And I’m proud to say I own my own
abode — a P.O. box of a pad in Anaheim
that I purchased in 2012. How did
I do it? I hate to sound like a broken record,
but I applied the same principles
as my parents. I shared a bunk bed with
my brother until I was 27, and never
took a vacation of any length until my
30s. I wear clothes until the shirts are
transparent and pants are frayed at the
bottom. I saved and worked and saved
and worked some more.
And I had good timing: While
many of my friends bought at the
height of the housing bubble, I leapt
in once it crashed.
I won’t say how much I paid, but
my monthly mortgage payment is
less than the $1,871 average monthly
rent for a one-bedroom in Orange
County, according to real estate market
tracker Reis.
So when I hear of educated
Americans who can’t afford to live in
Southern California, part of me wants
to tell them to buck up and make
it happen — because if my parents
were able to make it, and I was able
to make it, why can’t they?
But then I check myself and see
the reality of the present day.
Investors inflate the market by
gobbling up properties and converting
them into Air BnBs or rentals; my
parents’ street has turned into a sea
of absentee landlords who let tenants
trash once-beautiful homes. Formerly
solid working-class jobs no longer
pay enough to make saving possible;
people live from hand to mouth and
have nothing left over for a nest egg.
In other words: Hard work and saving
aren’t always enough anymore.
Two of my siblings still live at
home despite working full time and
getting benefits. They can’t afford to
live anywhere in Orange County on
their own right now. When collegeeducated,
second-generation kids
can’t top their working-class parents,
that’s a problem for the future of the
American Dream.
That’s how I see it, anyway. My favorite
uncle from my mom’s side, who
bought a two-story house in Placentia
in the mid-1990s — with a bigger pool
than ours, on a concrete finisher’s
salary as the sole breadwinner, while
raising six kids — sees it differently.
“A trabajar, tontos,” he’d say to the
complainers. Get to work, dummies.
My favorite uncle from my mom’s side, who bought a two-story house in Placentia
in the mid-1990s — with a bigger pool than ours, on a concrete finisher’s salary
as the sole breadwinner, while raising six kids — sees it differently. “A trabajar,
tontos,” he’d say to the complainers. Get to work, dummies.
/www.TCGKona.com
link
/www.kitchencabinetshawaii.com
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