There are many people considering the Hawaii real estate market as a way to make money in a relatively brief period of time, but there are two different types of people you can find in this field. The real estate investor is the person who continuously makes profit and places it back into the business.

Real estate investors have their own investing tactics and they base their investments on specific criteria; usually, experienced investors know exactly what trends to follow and what to ignore when it comes to the market trend, because they know that the big bucks come from their own business vision and not from the market trend.

However, many times we hear about real estate investors who make investment mistakes or fail in their investments, and people wonder how experienced real estate investors could make such important mistakes.

The truth is that these people are often not at all real estate investors, but rather real estate speculators. This is the second category of people activating in the real estate business domain, and the number of speculators is not small either.

There are important differences between these two categories of people. The most common cases of real estate speculators are people who buy a brand new home from a builder speculating that they would be able to sell the contract or flip it before settlement. There are many such cases, and you’ve probably heard or you know someone in this situation (or maybe you’re one of these people yourself).

You should know that even though there may have been people who succeeded in making a quick profit from this scheme, most of the people who try this tactic end up owning houses they never actually planned on owning.

It is true that some people manage to just walk away from the contract they signed, even if they often have to lose the money they have paid in the form of non-refundable deposits. That is the reason for which many home builders who have large inventories end up having to offer purchase incentives so that they would try and sell off some of it.

However, many of the real estate speculators who chose to complete the purchasing process not only did not recover anything from the investment they made, but they also ended up being faced with foreclosure and they had to lose a lot of money.

The main thing to remember when it comes to real estate is that speculating does not mean investing, so if you really want to make money you should learn how to make it right.

The Costa Mesa real estate market, a subsidiary of the much larger Orange County housing market, continued to have issues with high rates of foreclosure despite relatively stable median home prices. According to a June 7, 2010 article from the Orange County Register, “According to CoreLogic’s latest late-mortgage report, 8.40% of Orange County home-loan borrowers as of April are 90 days-plus late with their house payments. That’s +2.60 percentage points vs. a year ago.” The piece, composed by Jon Lansner, went on to state that “2.37% of Orange County homes were in the foreclosure process; +0.15 percentage points vs. a year earlier. 0.35% of Orange County homes were repossessed by banks as REO (real estate owned); -0.10 percentage points vs. a year earlier. Orange County 90-day delinquency rate is -3.20 percentage points vs. the state’s slow-pay rate -0.50 percentage points vs. national pace.”

The average sales price of a Costa Mesa home for sale rose along with the rest of the O.C. in the most recent tracking period, according to a June 4, 2010 piece from the Orange County Register. The piece noted that “For the 22 business days ending May 18 – DataQuick’s latest real estate buying report – Orange county saw…$440,000 median selling price that is up 12.8% vs. a year ago yet -32% below June 2007’s peak of $645,000. A median of $440,000 was last seen in Orange County in August 2008.” The article by Jon Lansner went on to state that “The most recent median is 19% above the cyclical low hit in January 2009 at $370,000 – a current bottom that was 43% below the peak. The median selling price of an Orange County single-family home is 30% less than their peak pricing (June ’07) while condos sell 37% below their peak in March 2006.”

About half a month earlier, the average home price for Costa Mesa real estate declined slightly, according to a May 18, 2010 article from the Orange County Business Journal. This piece, written by Mark Mueller, found that “Orange County’s median home price edged down $2,000 in April from March, but still stands $50,000 higher than the prices seen here a year ago.”

The Mesa real estate market, found in the midst of one of the hardest-hit parts of the country, showed some promising trends in the month of May. According to a June 9, 2010 article from the Phoenix Business Journal, “New research from Arizona State University shows foreclosures as a share of overall Valley homes sales are declining. The latest ASU Realty Studies report from the W.P. Carey School of Business says the number of foreclosures dropped from 40 percent of the market’s recorded activity in March to 33 percent in May.” The piece went on to caution that “Despite the decline, there is no guarantee the trend will continue. ‘Defaults and late payments are still at record levels and could be a precursor of additional foreclosures.’ said Jay Butler, associate professor of real estate and author of the report. ‘The main issues center on whether income will increase enough for people to hold on to their current homes, and whether they can maintain payments on their homes.’”

The prevalence of foreclosures amongst Mesa homes for sale declined, as more home sales in the Phoenix area were of the traditional variety. According to a June 10, 2010 article from KGUN 9 News, “A new report shows foreclosed homes made up a smaller share of existing home sales in the Phoenix area last month. The Arizona State University Realty studies report shows foreclosed homes dropped from 40% of all sales in March to 33% in May.” The piece, also released by the Associated Press, continued to state that “Butler says some homeowners may choose to walk away because their home’s value has sunk and because they owe too much on their mortgages. Foreclosures and sales of previously foreclosed-on properties still made up 60% of sales in May.”

Despite a low level of sales overall, some recent tracking indicators had positive news for Mesa real estate, according to a May 22, 2010 article from the Arizona Republic. The piece, composed by Catherine Reagor, noted that “April figures for existing-home sales in metro Phoenix reveal several promising shifts for those searching for signs of a housing-market recovery.”

The Palo Alto real estate market is very closely related to the greater Bay Area real estate market, and seems to be showing some signs of improvement. According to a March 11, 2010 article from ABC 7 News, “For the first time in a long time, some of the Bay Area’s hardest hit counties are seeing their foreclosure numbers drop compared with last year. In San Joaquin County, foreclosure filings have dropped 42 percent since February 2009; in Alameda, foreclosure filings are down 16 percent and in Contra Costa County, filings are down 3 percent.” In the words of Elaine Brooks-Cox, a foreclosure contractor with Pacific Community Services, “Just recently we’ve seen a small slowdown. Our inventory for foreclosure inventory and short-sale inventory and a short-sale inventory in the local 680 corridor is down; we’re seeing probably a decrease by as much as 60 percent over what it was last year.”

Home prices are another bright spot for Palo Alto homes for sale, according to a  March 18, 2010 online article from the Los Angeles Times. The article stated that “The median price paid for a Bay Area home jumped 20% in February as fewer foreclosures were on the market, the San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick said Thrusday. Sales fell for the second month in a row. Potential buyers had trouble securing financing, were concerned about job security or had a difficult time competing for a home as inventory tightened, DataQuick said.” According to John Walsh, the President of DataQuick, “The market remains fundamentally off kilter. There’s still relatively little lending going on in the upper price ranges, and little adjustable-rate financing, which have been vital to the Bay Area.”

One possible negative influence on Palo Alto real estate for sale was negative news regarding home sales. According to a March 19, 2010 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, “The volume of Bay Area home sales dipped in February compared with a year ago, while the median price continued to rise, according to a real estate report released on Thursday…A total of 3,582 existing single-family homes changed hands in the nine-county region in February…”

Palm Desert real estate, representative of the larger Coachella Valley area, seems to be stabilizing during the first quarter of the fiscal year, according to a March 29, 2010 article in the Desert Sun. This piece found that “The Coachella Valley’s real estate market remained in a ‘stabilizing’ pattern in February with a 14.8 percent jump in prices, while sales rose just .06 percent over February 2009, the California Desert Association of Realtors reported today.” According to Greg Berkemer, the executive directors of the California Desert Association of Realtors, “The desert appears to remain in a stability phase which should remain in place until there is either a change in the market dynamic either some outside force or event and/or buyers’ and sellers’ confidence in the future becomes more evident. Although prices remained flat in February compared to January, sales did move up some by 5.6 percent.”

Palm Desert homes for sale, along with the rest of California’s real estate market, managed to boost a nation-wide measure of real estate health. According to a March 31, 2010 article in the Desert Sun, “A national index of home prices rose unexpectedly in January, with California cities posting strong gains, but some experts warned that the nation’s struggling housing market could be headed for another dip. The closely watched Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 metropolitan areas rose 0.3 percent from December on a seasonally adjusted basis.” The article continued to note that “That marked eight consecutive months of home values improving or at least holding steady. That rise is good news for people who plan to sell their homes this spring.”

Home sales were one especially positive piece of news for Palm Desert real estate for sale, according to a March 18, 2010 article by John Hussar in the Desert Sun. This article observed that “The Coachella Valley’s ‘season’ of postcard-perfect weather and tourism helped propel a jump in existing home sales 10.5 percent in January while prices rose 17.4 percent over January 2009, the California Desert Association of Realtors reported today…The median price of an existing home in the Coachella Valley was $179,760 in January, up 4.3 percent from December and 17.4 percent from January 2009.”

The Ashland real estate market, a subset of the larger Oregon real estate market, is facing a slow and challenging road towards recovery. According to an April 9, 2010 article in the Oregonian, “The housing markets around the Portland area and Central Oregon will not rise back to their peak-era pricing levels until after 2015, according to research firm Fiserv.” The piece, composed by Ryan Frank, continued to state that “The Northwest forecasts are far better than the Sand States – California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada – where a return to boomtime prices isn’t expected until after 2025. The forecast is based on data from Fiserv, the Case-Shiller Index, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Moody’s Economy.com. (via HousingWire) David Stiff, Fiserv’s chief economist, said in a statement that the index points to another 7 percent decline in home prices through 2010, with a prolonged recovery starting in 2011.”

The situation confronting Ashland real estate and the rest of the state of Oregon has become severe enough that the state has received almost one hundred million dollars to help relieve the foreclosure crisis. According to a March 29, 2010 article in The Oregionian, “The good news and bad news are one and the same: Oregon is one of five states that will share in a $600 million federal program aimed at helping regions hardest hit by unemployment, home foreclosures and upside-down mortgages.” The piece, composed by Eric Mortenson, continued to state that “The agency will distribute the $88 million awarded to Oregon under an aid program expansion announced Monday by the Obama administration to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.”

The volume of Ashville and Oregon homes for sale, however, has most likely increased, according to an April 7, 2010 article in the Oregon Business Report. According to this article, “The University of Oregon Lane County Business Index (LCBI) rose 2.5 percent to 88.2 (1999=100) in the fourth quarter of 2009, the first increase since the first quarter of 2007. The increase is consistent with evidence that the national and state economies exited recession in the second half of 2009.” The article, composed by Tim Duy, continued to say that “Housing markets improved during the quarter, with home sales rising to a monthly rate of nearly 300 units, a 46 percent increase from the second quarter low. Moreover, the average days on market declined as homes sold more quickly.”

The Savannah real estate market remains in a dismal state, with home sales and foreclosures both suggesting continued troubles for the state of Georgia and the city of Savannah. According to an April 8, 2010 article in the Times-Herald, “Foreclosure advertisements in the Times-Herald are up 18.6 percent over the same month last year, with 216 scheduled for listing in this Thursday’s legal advertisement section.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman confronted the financial crisis facing Georgia in an April 11, 2010 article, stating that “To appreciate Georgia’ specialness, you need to realize that the housing bubble was a geographically uneven affair. Basically, prices rose sharply only where zoning restrictions and other factors limited the construction of new houses.”

One central problem confronting Savannah real estate, foreclosures, was reported in an April 7, 2010 article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. This piece found that “Foreclosure rates and mortgage delinquency rates continued to grow in February in metro Atlanta and Georgia, according to data Wednesday from FirstAmerican CoreLogic. The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta region had a foreclosure rate of 2.79 percent in February, compared with 1.61 percent in February 2009. The 90-plus day delinquency rate for the area was 11.12 percent, compared with 6.79 percent in February 2009.” The piece continued to note that “Georgia’s foreclosure rate in February was 2.45 percent, compared with 1.41 percent in February 2009. The state’s 90-plus day delinquency rate was 9.73 percent, versus 5.99 percent in February 2009.”

Savannah homes for sale have also been facing extremely low rates of new home sales, according to a March 24, 2010 article in WSAV News. This piece found that “As the housing market struggles to recover from the recession, the government released a report Wednesday showing sales of new homes fell to record low levels last month.” The article, written by Tuquyen Mach, continued to state that “The report on February home sales was not what most folks wanted to hear but what many expected. Sales of new homes last month fell to the lowest level since record-keeping started about 50 years ago.”

A notable suburb of the Phoenix area, Chandler, Arizona, lies in Maricopa County and is home to a population nearly a quarter of a million. The fast-growing city experienced start rises in real estate prices in recent years, but many of those gains were brought to an abrupt halt at the onset of the U.S. credit crisis, when housing markets across the country collapsed.

According to local realtors John Hall Associates, most recent months have shown some slight signs for optimism in the Chandler real estate market, as sales activity rises. In March, there were 408 homes sold in Chandler, a sizable increase from February’s 275 sales and January’s 234. The figure was the highest monthly figure since October 2009. It is an improvement on figures from one year ago, when there were just 296 sales.

The number of listings has steadily risen as well, tracing an upward-leaning path since September 2009, when it reached a trough. In April, there were 1,671 active listings of Chandler homes for sale, up from 1,613 in March and 1,519 in February. The figure is a drop from one year ago, however, when there were 1,752 listings.

Prices per square foot of homes sold in Chandler are beginning to form a steady line, remaining basically constant over the past year. In March, the figure was $105, the exact same figure as it was one year ago. March also showed a troubling sign however: a spike in foreclosures. There were 391 foreclosure notices in March and 249 trustee sales, both sizable increase from the previous month. Foreclosure notices have fallen since last year though, when there were 438 in March. Trustee sales, however, have risen; there were just 106 last March.

Burlingame, a city in San Mateo County in Northern California, has a resilient real estate market. Despite falls and drops in prices brought about because of the U.S. financial and credit crisis, the Burlingame real estate market has fought on. Though prices still remain below where they were during the pre-recession highs, they are still high compared with other regions in the country.

According to statistics compiled by local realtor Vicki Moore, at the end of 2009, December saw 43 active listings of Burlingame homes for sale, with nine new listings. This was an improvement on November’s market, when there were 70 active listings and 20 new listings. There 26 homes sold in Burlingame in December, an improvement upon November’s 17 sales.

The prices of homes in Burlingame in December were on the rise as well. The median sales price in the month was $1.25 million, up from $1.05 million in November and the highest median since September. This figure is just slightly less than the median sales price during the boom years: In 2007, the median sales price in the city was $1.35 million.  December’s average price was $1.4 million, also up from November’s $1.05 million and nearly meeting September’s average.

Burlingame sellers are getting a good proportion of the asking prices on their homes for sale. In December, the sale price-to-list price ratio was 96.9%. In November, it was 96.7% and in October it was 98%. The average number of days homes in Burlingame spent on the market in December rose from November, when it was just 47, to 60, back to constant with levels in October, when the average was 61 days.

The market for real estate in Marin County, California, is typical of the larger U.S. housing market. Though prices have fallen steeply from their peaks around 2006 and 2007, the market seems to be stabilizing and it has been helped by the government’s stimulus program offering up to $8,000 in tax credits to qualified home buyers, which has spurred activity in the area in recent months especially.

In November, sales of single-family homes in Marin County surged, up by nearly 77% when compared with sales activity at the same time last year. Despite a strong showing this month, however, year-to-date, sales of homes for sale in Marin County is off by 0.2%. December statistics will determine whether 2009 was a better or worse year for the market than 2008.

Marin County real estate saw a decently sized increase in its home prices during October 2009. According to the California Association of Realtors‘ data, in October, the median price for homes sold was $648,000, up 8% from October 2008, when it was just at $599,750.  In November, however, the median price was down 7.1% from October’s figures, down 5.7%. The November figures were 14.8% lower than November 2008 figures.

According to The Real Estate Report, a licensed California broker run by CPA Ron Parks, the median price for a single-family home in November in Marin County was just $702,000, compared with $755,880 in October of this year and $824,000 in November of last year. The market saw 161 sales in November, down from 171 in October but up decidedly from last November’s 91 sales. Days on the market were down in November, to 92 from 96 in October, but those figures are up from November 2008, when the average number of days on the market was 88.