Housing Issues In Hawaii

Overpriced housing has been a problem that has been going on for many years on the island of Hawaii. Keali’i News looked into this ongoing issue and discovered the true reason why the housing crisis is still going on. Over the past couple years, Housing in Hawaii has changed drastically due to the coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, Hawaii saw a huge spike in the housing market as supply was being heavily outweighed by demand. But with the pandemic finally coming to an end in 2021-2022, Hawaii's economy started to recover and housing prices started to lower statewide. But still, the average house prices on Oahu are considered some of the highest in the nation. This is affecting thousands of local families across the state of Hawaii. Many potential homebuyers have resorted to staying in multi generational houses or even moving to the mainland where prices are cheaper. Although this has been an issue that has been occurring for a long time, the people of Hawaii believe that there needs to be some sort of change to the housing market.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Many people’s paychecks were massively cut as businesses were forced to close up shop due to the virus. But with this, the housing market did not see a big decrease like all the other markets. According to Zillow, At the start of 2021 in January, the average home value index was $657,735. And by December, prices reached $755,681. The reason that the housing market remained strong during the pandemic was mainly due to the fact that there are always people looking for a house in Hawaii and people competed with each other by offering the higher price. Many millionaires from the mainland also come down to Hawaii to purchase a house as an investment and either rent it out or flip it. This put a crunch on the housing market's supply because as demand became greater, so did the median price of the average house. For us locals who were looking to buy a home at the time, on top of them struggling to make ends meet, they also had to face an extremely competitive housing market where house prices seemed to only be increasing. 

Now that it is 2023, the coronavirus pandemic is now old news and the housing market has begun to slowly decline. But despite the prices dropping across Hawaii, The average price for a single family home is still extremely expensive for a single family to be able to afford and live comfortably. According to Zillow, the average value of houses across all of the Hawaiian islands is $834,583. On the island of Oahu, in Waimanalo, The median price of a house is $1,023,360. And one of the cheaper end cities to live in on the island is Ewa Beach, where the median price of a single family home is $836,457. Keali’i caught up with Hunter Mendiola, who had purchased his first house in Kapolei back in 2020 - the middle of the coronavirus pandemic -. Although prices were somewhat high at the time, “[he] managed to purchase [his] house that was originally listed for $675,000.” - Hunter Mendiola. Nowadays, The average median price of a single family home in Kapolei is reaching upwards of $857,205. This goes to show that even though the pandemic had somewhat of an impact on the housing market, Prices across the island are still at outrageous numbers even after the pandemic ended and with the market slowly dropping. 

With Hawaii being one of the most expensive states to live in throughout the entire nation, many local families are considering other housing options in order to remain financially stable. One of the main alternatives local families are resorting to is living in multi-generational households. This is when a family shares a house with their parents, grandparents and in some cases other families from the same bloodline. Although this method could leave the  household rather crowded, many families have no choice but to do this due to how high-priced the housing market is. Another option - although many locals do not like it - is for families to pack their things and move to a neighboring island or to the mainland. This is especially true for the island of Oahu, since the prices are the highest there out of all the islands.

 When the locals of Hawaii end up moving out to the mainland, The native Hawaiian population slowly starts to decrease. This has been a problem for years where native Hawaiians are forced out of their land that they have owned for many generations due to the increasing housing market and are often replaced by people from the mainland who buy up their property. This upsets many locals as they watch Hawaii become less and less of an option to raise their families here due to the rising market. 

All in all, the housing market of Hawaii has had a huge effect on the locals that live there. With the coronavirus, Hawaii saw a big spike on the average median of a single family home as the demand for houses was farley outweighed by supply. This is what led many potential homebuyers to pursue more affordable housing options, such as multi- generational homes or moving to the mainland. But with this, locals are forced to move to the mainland which led to the Native Hawaiian population to slowly decrease across the islands. Although the housing market is slowly decreasing, Local families still struggle to afford a home with Hawaii being one of the most expensive states to live in. The people of Hawaii believe that there needs to be some sort of change to the housing market in order to “keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands” - Walter Aipolani.