So Long, Mr. President

Come tomorrow, President Obama and family will head back to their usual residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in our nation’s capital. It’s been a surprisingly quiet visit for the First Family compared to previous years. While they stayed in Kailua on the windward side as they always do when visiting Oahu (in a legal rental, we hope!), there weren’t as many of the typical stories in the paper and photo-ops we’ve come to expect: Obama visiting Island Snow for a shave ice, bodyboarding at Sandy’s, hitting up the local golf courses for some links.

No doubt much of the above and more were part of the itinerary, they just seemed to stay out of the spotlight this time. However, even in Hawaii, it’s hard to avoid it when you’re the POTUS or part of the crew. Just today, as my wife, father-in-law (visiting from Japan) and I were finishing lunch at a small Chinese restaurant in Laie while touring around Oahu, a bit of a commotion started to develop outside. Turns out the First Lady needed some ice cream and a few minutes later there are about 50 people waiting outside the strip mall to catch a brief 2-second glimpse as she briskly walked out of the store and jumped in a rather large black van. Then back to life as usual.

And with that, Hawaii goes back to being Hawaii. While the mainland is about to suffer ungodly cold weather this week, we’ll only experience a seasonally minor dip while we wait for some more whales and another swell or two.

We’ll also wait to see if the mortgage debt forgiveness policy gets renewed, if interest rates start to rise again, if the banks decide to take on the new stricter lending guidelines and if the median prices of single family homes and condos can push even higher. Obama has some work ahead of him when he walks back into the White House.

It’s bound to be a rather interesting, if not outright exciting, year for real estate in Hawaii and across the nation. Stay tuned….