So I am back from my extended vacation. Spent some time in Maui and Kauai. While I was there my husband and I poked around at real estate, of course. We were suprised to discover that much of the land is still purchased using a land lease. What is a land lease? Wikipedia says that a land lease is a type of financial arrangement in which the ground under a structure is leased, rather than sold to the builder, meaning that the land and the structure are owned independently. So in essence you are buying the structure and paying a mortgage on it, and also paying a monthly fee to lease the land. We saw this fee up around $1000/month. Wow! So that is how Queen Liliuokalani can afford her jewlery.