Cost of Living in Hawaii

Hawaii is so beautiful, and so many come to visit each year. They fall in love with the land, the views, and the culture. But what about living here?That is a whole other story. The cost of living in Hawaii alone is high, and that's including expenses like groceries, gas, taxes and bills. The cost of living specifically in Waimanalo has left many homeless. Most of the housing is left at a very high price due to the convenience of it being right next to the beach. Yet a lot of the homeless are people waiting for Hawaiian homes. Hawaiian homes is but can't because homeowners are adding the land value to the housing cost even though they don't own the land. The cost of living in Hawaii alone is one of the highest in the United States, and Waimanalo alone is one of the highest in the state. 

Honolulu’s median household income was around $80,000 in 2019. In 2023 there is a population of 1.4M+, $20K+ in comfortable living wage. About 453.9K is the average salary in Hawaii compared to the US average which is $54.1K. The median housing prices on the island of Oahu is $1,100,000, Hawaii island is $361,700, Maui is %1,092,500, and Kauai is $1,468,000. All these are from the start of this year, 2023, till now.

With the rising inflation yet jobs pay staying the same, it has become harder for people to pay for necessities. Honolulu requires residents to have an income of $200,000+ to live comfortably in Hawaii.  There are many consequences. In the short term this high inflation can lead to faster economic growth, which will leave even more of our population, not just in Hawaii, but in the US, becoming homeless. In the long term there will be fewer resources to cover bills, especially with people who are in debt or about to take on debt. But what are local organizations doing to solve this problem? 

The Hawaii Community Foundation is working to address this issue. Chrstine van Bergeijk describes it as "all things that make Hawaii less possible, especially for younger folks." Again like she stated before that her strategy is, "One of the Strategies involves "helping get people out of the volatile rental market and into homes by helping them prepare with credit and personal finance counseling" 

With all this being said, I went into the community and found two people and got their opinions on what they feel about this situation. Rhonda Edralin lives on the Island of Kauai. I wanted to interview her to see how different the cost of living is from different islands. The main topic I wanted to get into was taxes. Specifically outer islands paying taxes for “the rail” even though it doesn’t benefit them. Rhonda says that she understands it because we are one whole state, but at the same time she finds this very unfair since they cant use it on a daily. I asked a similar question to the other person that was interviewed, Kaleopa'a Vares. I wask him what he thinks about the islands paying taxes for the rail even tho it only benifites a portion of the island and not everyone. Since he lives near the Kapolei station he said this will benifit him when he is buying groceries in town. And even though this doesn't benefit the whole island along with neighbor islands, if you are visiting near the stations it is a great way to utilize public transporation, and make use of our city services.

All in all inflation and covid has effected the community is no many ways but the cost of living and things have have effected it does have its benifites along with it's downs.