One of the highlights of the year in the financial world is invariably Warren Buffet’s letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. It is always thoughtful, open, candid and enlightening. The recently released 2009 letter is no different. Specifically the letter talks about Clayton Homes and the housing industry generally. Here is an excerpt:

The industry is in shambles for two reasons, the first of which must be lived with if the U.S. economy is to recover. This reason concerns U.S. housing starts (including apartment units). In 2009, starts were 554,000, by far the lowest number in the 50 years for which we have data. Paradoxically, this is good news. People thought it was good news a few years back when housing starts – the supply side of the picture – were running about two million annually. But household formations – the demand side – only amounted to about 1.2 million. After a few years of such imbalances, the country unsurprisingly ended up with far too many houses. There were three ways to cure this overhang: (1) blow up a lot of houses, a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the “cash-for-clunkers” program; (2) speed up household formations by, say, encouraging teenagers to cohabitate, a program not likely to suffer from a lack of volunteers or; (3) reduce new housing starts to a number far below the rate of household formations. Our country has wisely selected the third option, which means that within a year or so residential housing problems should largely be behind us, the exceptions being only high-value houses and those in certain localities where overbuilding was particularly egregious. Prices will remain far below “bubble” levels, of course, but for every seller (or lender) hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn’t afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means because the bubble burst.

For those interest in Maui Real Estate the bold is obviously the most interesting part of the text.

Kai Ani Village is being developed by Victory Development Inc (Victory) , a Golden Nugget award winning,  California based, smart growth, real estate development company. Chief Executive Todd Liebl has over 30 years of development experience in projects ranging from commercial to multi-family to high-end residential projects. In total, Victory Development has created in excess of one thousand units in new projects and has demonstrated the agility and insight to thrive in both the best and most difficult of real estate markets.

Victory creates all its projects with an awareness of the aesthetics and cleaner environment that comes with green building. Selection of location, a focus on energy efficiency, lower maintenance and conservation of the environment all play major roles in Victory’s ongoing ability to offer state of the art properties.

All of this experience has come together to create Kai Ani Village, Maui’s newest mixed use condominium project. The project is in a supremely walkable location, boasts extensive use of energy saving materials and architecture and offers the most modest of monthly maintenance fees. Most recently Kai Ani  Village has completed a comprehensive refinancing that completely eliminated any bank debt and put the project on optimal financial footing for completion.

Todd Leible has never left a project incomplete. Come and see Kai Ani Village!