(FORTUNE Magazine) – Real estate prices all over the U.S. are soaring, except in... Hawaii? Yes, the same place that was a real estate price-appreciation paradise in the 1980s is a value wasteland today, with ritzy hotels, swanky malls, and sky-high office buildings going dirt cheap. The biggest reason: Japan's woes have pounded the all-important Hawaiian tourism business since the early '90s. As a result, commercial properties have lost up to half their value from their 1990 peak. Back in 1993 many were stunned when Colony Capital, a vulture real estate company, paid about $55 million for a Big Island hotel sporting a loan book value above $400 million. Now cheap price tags are common. Bottom fishers see Hawaii as a safe way to profit from the depressed Japanese market. "Every day we have people calling for the next steal," says Andrew Friedlander, head of real estate agency Colliers Monroe Friedlander.

Yet buying isn't as easy as it would seem. "We have been one of the most prolific investors in Hawaii," says Colony Capital's president, Kelvin Davis, "and even we have only consummated a handful of acquisitions." Why? Japanese investors bought much of the land during the market's heady top. Now they don't want to sell and incur hefty book losses. Much of the remaining land is owned by a cluster of Hawaii's power-family trusts, such as the Bishop estate, which runs tony shopping malls. These families bought back when kings ruled the islands. With expenses long since paid for, they'd be crazy to sell at the bottom of the market.

Even well-placed connections can't get you in today. Goldman Sachs has only two properties in Hawaii--despite the inclusion of the Bishop estate in the bank's limited partnership. Apparently there's no easy money to be made in paradise.

--Amy Kover