"Families are required to have higher credit scores, their FICAs need to be higher and they need to come in with a larger investment and down payment and closing costs so there's less risk to the lender."

Ka'uhane's mortgage company has a specific clientele. "We have a particular focus on Native Hawaiians. Basically we have two program areas: financial education and on the other side of our shop we manage Hawaii Community Lending, and it's a non-profit mortgage broker, Hawaii's First."

With these two programs working in tandem, Ka'uhane hopes to help more Hawaiians become homeowners.

Fortunately there is tremendous development by DHHL and banks working to assist the Native Hawaiian community.

Even in these tough economic times, there is still help out there for families wanting to own a home.

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