Page 2 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - June 9, 2021

2 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK JUNE 9, 2021
Rotten
All In With ‘Easttown’ Series
BY CHRIS MCKINNEY
PAPAYAS
For years, I’ve been a sucker for stories set in one of those Northeastern towns barely held together by high school sports, church, and lifelong friendships or grudges. Small towns where industry has vanished, property pric- es have plummeted, drug use has boomed and the people, who all know each other, are hanging on by a thread. I’ m
talking Richard Russo coun- try. Give me that setting and a murder mystery, and I’m all in.
now saddled with an aging mother, a resentful daugh- ter, a 4-year-old grandson and a case she hasn’t been able to solve in over a year. Her ex-husband lives next door and is about to get re- married.
I’m still feeling like a few too many murder mystery tropes have been thrust onto this story, perhaps by the Warner Bros. powers that be. The misdirection is frequently ham- handed. However, overall, what I’ve seen so far is very, very good.
HBO Max’s Mare of East- town is set in small-town Pennsylvania. Kate Winslet plays Mare Sheehan, a de- tective who spent her entire life in Easttown.
Like the town she polic- es, she’s barely holding it together. Then, when her daughter’s classmate is found murdered, and she
The star of her high school basketball team a quarter century before, Mare is
han is haggard, stubborn, stoic, and occasionally hot-tempered and mean. Winslet fully inhabits this vaping, cold pizza and Cheez Whiz-eating, beer-swigging cop. Her past, her present and it feels like her future are stuffed with tragedy.
Mare is the embodiment of Easttown.
Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle. The dif- ficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest). Answers are on page 7
RATING: BRONZE
Kate Winslet stars in the HBO Max series Mare of Easttown.
PHOTO BY EVAN AGOSTINI/ INVISION/AP
By the third episode, my fear was that too many char- acters and too much forced misdirection would dilute the essence of this story. A story about a girl’s murder, and a cop who’s juggling the case along with some seri- ously heavy and razor-sharp personal baggage.
personally knows every sus- pect, Mare is willing to dig into all leads — to expose secrets. The next thing you know, the guts of Easttown spill out for all to see. She finds enemies in people she’s known her entire life.
Through most of the se- ries (I haven’t seen the last episode yet), you can tell that Mare’s aching to break down, but she refuses to.
However, by the end of the fourth episode, I knew, like the story’s main charac- ter, there was no way I was not going to see this thing
Winslet is wonderful in this series. Her Mare Shee-
Shoot, she won’t even blink. Refusing to fold un- der adversity after adversity,
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The concept of “timing the market” has implications for first-time home buyers, home sellers and veteran real estate investors alike. The idea that the market will adjust significantly downward allowing sellers to sell high today and buy low later or the notion that a home buyer should delay their purchase in hopes prices will recede requires a bit of almost impossible in-depth analysis. Such analysis must be done within the context of our local marketplace
to be complete. Not a day passes that I don’t hear “bubble talk”. If there is a bubble (and many still believe there is
not), it will likely take several years before we are able to truly confirm it exists. Many anticipate interest
rates will soon rise. This means that
delaying a purchase could actually cost more even if prices decline. Here’s why. A payment of $1789 will purchase a home of approximately $300,000 in today’s market. If interest rates rise only 2%, buying power is reduced over $50,000 to
NOW OR LATER??
$245,500. A delay normally means paying someone else’s mortgage payment (renting) for an indefinite amount of time. Knowing when the bottom has been reached will be difficult to assess. A seller profit might quickly lag behind rent payments as they sit and try to determine when the market has hit its peak. Keep in mind that many high-end buyers, those who typically buy in Hawaii, are not normally impacted by market fluctuations. This group of buyers, comprised largely of relocating buyers with tons of equity in their current home and even a tidy retirement portfolio, account for much of our current activity. This factor alone could likely insulate Hawaii from the normal effects of any national housing bubble. Their search for a home outside the city, second or retirement homes will be timed by a clock (such as years to retirement) other than local housing conditions. Those about to enter the market should not feel left behind. Being a local purchaser has distinct advantages over mainland buyers. Local buyers have the luxury of being here.
Decisions aren’t quite as rushed. Local folks know the area. When something new pops on the market, it can be viewed immediately. Buyers across the board are feeling constrained by lack of inventory so being able to view and make an immediate purchasing decision is huge. Working with a real estate professional who will help prepare you to compete with the mainland buyers is essential. Watching the market go back down isn’t going to be any easier to monitor than watching it rise. Visit one of our websites regularly. Contact an agent with a heavy listing portfolio. As I mentioned before, they are in the best position to know what’s coming on the market. Watch for price adjustments or properties returning to the market. Watch interest rates. Luckily, changes in the real estate market are not as erratic as the stock market so while it’s possible to take a deep breath and watch, trying to time the market is probably not a great strategy for buyers and sellers alike.
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