My friend wrote me and told me the good news… he’d just bought a house on Big Island, Hawaii!
Was I happy for him? I’m not sure.
I checked the Google Earth satellite shot and it was just as I suspected… he’s right on the edge of the lava flow. Now, probably every house on Big Island is right on the edge of some lava flow… not to mention sitting on top of a couple trillion pounds of lava underneath the surface.
He wants to rent out the one unit on the property and live in the other one. Do people want to rent out for vacation a house sitting on an active volcano? Apparently so.
Is this rational behavior? He’s from Sweden originally, so we have to take that into account… but, even regular people are buying property on the top of this active volcano.
Would you ever buy a home or property on Big Island, Hawaii?
Are you in the least fearful that the volcano could blow up without anyone having any clue – and drown you in molten lava?
The desire to live off the grid in a tropical setting on reasonably affordable land among like minded people might overwhelm any fear or doubt caused by the volcanoes.
Yes, the Volcano might kill everybody, but that doesn’t seem like such a big negative. All kinds of places growing up they’d say: “oh the big earthquake will sink this whole place” or “oh this is the number 1 nuke target, and our stash here might go off any time”
Meh, I’d rather live in a beautiful place full of beautiful people than live in a beautiful place full of ugly people.
The best choice is to go with Lava Zone 3, because in all likelihood it’ll at least continue to exist for the next 100 years, so.. you and your children can live there, and after that, does it really matter?
I think choosing a place to live is a very personal choice. What’s most important in my opinion is that people know as much of the facts as they can so that they are making the most informed decision possible.
Indeed, love what you’re doing here, lots of helpful information!
Thanks for the kind words. Really appreciate it
Vern! How are you my friend? What are the chances of the volcano going off? If it isn’t that high then maybe thats part of the attraction – doing dangerous stuff makes some people feel alive I guess.
Well, with almost 1 million visitors every year, its seems as if people are more fascinated with an active volcano that with fear of being killed by it. And they have to stay somewhere, hence a thriving B&B and vacation rental industry up there, since there are no hotels. Besides, there is actually a volcano/lave insurance for home owners… Now my friend Vern, who wrote this, comes from Florida. I heard that on occasion, hurricanes demolish Florida. Yet, every year, the people rebuild and continue living there. So I guess Floridians and Hawaiians are either as ignorant about the dangers, or equally stubborn in nature…
Why do you think I left Florida and Hawaii for Thailand? lol… Here we don’t have hurricanes, many earthquakes… but, 2 days after I left Phuket we had the TSUNAMI! But come on Christian – buying land and a house on a volcano? You own everything under the ground – yes? Littoral rights I think it’s called – my real estate career was brief, but I think I remember that word for some reason. You own the rights to the liquid magma that flows beneath your house… that’s just weird! lol… Anyway, when do you expect to have your bed and breakfast ready so people can go spend time on Big Island?