Native midwesterner looking to relocate well into the future. (Hilo: mortgages, how much)

[Aaron and Mary Vassar]

I am a 33 year old father of 3 daughters, 8, 6, 2. I am currently going to school to be a Chiropractor. My wife is a store manager of a frozen yogurt shoppe. After I am done with school we are looking to escape the midwest. We are a conservative family but not closed minded or judgmental. I have always dreamed of living in Hawaii. Are there many Chiropractors there and are they successful? How friendly are the people to outsiders moving in? Is there a big concern about volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and if so where is the best place to best avoid these issues and raise a family in a nice neighborhood with decent schools, while still providing a reasonable drive to your gorgeous beaches and entertainment and good Christian churches? I know I'm probably asking a lot but we are just putting tacks in the map right now. Thanks for your help!

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

You have plenty of time to do lots of research. Given the quality of schools in Hawaii, it is recommended that you wait until your kids are finished with school before moving. unless you can afford the really expensive private schools or do homeschooling.

This forum is a wealth of information. I suggest that you read through the many threads discussing the exact issues you are asking about. Also read a book called "So You Want to Live in Hawaii" by Toni Polancy.

Since Hawaii has a very different culture than most of the other states, the first thing you should do is determine why you want to live here. As you will find from your reading, the vacation paradise is much different than the realities of day-to-day life.

[hotzcatz]

Aloha Aaron & Mary,

Sorry, can't help you much with details on being a Chiropractor in Hawaii, although if it follows the way most professional licensing goes in this state, you may want to check what further requirements will be necessary to set up shop as a Chiropractor in this state. I wouldn't be surprised if there were additional tests or licenses necessary to practice here.

The folks in Hawaii are pretty friendly to tourists, although when you move to Hawaii they are going to be standoffish for the first year or so since you are (statistically speaking) quite likely to leave within the first year. If you embrace Hawaii and never mention that you want to move back to the mainland or never compare things here to how things are "back home", then your new neighbors will warm up to you a lot faster.

On the Island of Hawaii, the concern about volcanoes is dependent on where you live on the island. Some areas, especially lower Puna, are much more likely to be in the path of a lava flow so there is some concern for those folks. However, the volcano here is a shield volcano so it pours out lava in a stream which is pretty slow and folks have time to get out of the way. Sometimes they even have time to move their house out of the way as well. Vog - which is volcanic fog, is much more of a concern than the volcano itself since it has sulfurous and other not good fumes in it and wrecks the air quality. The Kona district has been affected by the vog in the past half decade or so but it comes as goes, it depends on the wind direction.

Earthquakes happen, although there's a big fault which runs through the mid-west, so they can get you there, too. Hurricanes don't seem to hit the Big Island much at all. The storm sort of gets pushed to the side by the mass of the mountains. It then curls around and whaps into Kauai, though as well as Oahu, it seems. But, I'm not a meteorologist so my opinion isn't scientific. You did miss out on tsunami, occasionally we have to watch out for those, but moving to higher ground is the answer and we have a really good warning system for tsunami.

Well, the hard part here is trying to explain the "nice neighborhood with decent schools" and "reasonable drive" to beaches, entertainment & chuches. Little bits of background information would be that the entire school system is statewide so all the schools are pretty much the same. So, use the school as a social interaction lesson and teach your kids at home all about the stuff they need to know such as practical math (checkbooks, mortgages, calculating purchase prices, how much paint to cover a wall, etc.), reading, writing, etc.

On the "neighborhood" issue, we have large tracts of housing which isn't really interspersed with much of anything else, so most folks have to drive quite a ways to get to someplace such as Hilo town that actually have things other than houses. Entertainment is usually found at home around here, there isn't a whole lot of organized entertainment. Although, if you find a church group you like, there will probably be things going on at the church. Schools have sports programs as well as a variety of programs in the schools. There are also groups who gather for a variety of different reasons, quilting, hiking, kayaking, baseball, bowling, etc. etc.

You may want to look at the Hilo area. If you were in Hilo town itself, it might fit. There are places to swim in the ocean although they aren't the big white sandy beaches you are thinking of, but those are about an hour and a half drive away. Hilo is also less expensive than the Kona district. Puna is less expensive than Hilo, but then you'd have to factor in the cost of driving everywhere to get anything or to go to anything so it actually comes out to be more expensive unless you never leave Puna.

The Big Island is big and rural so many folks have to travel quite a ways to get to where they want to go. We don't have a big city on this island, Hilo is a mid sized town, not a city at all. Kailua in the Kona district is smaller, I think. Run some demographics and see. How big of a population is required to need Chiropractors?

[OpenD]

Aloha Aaron,

Since you're new, I'll point out that you should immediately stop and read the Terms of Service here, a link to which is provided at the top of each Forum.

I'm guessing you haven't read the TOS yet, for several reasons... one is that it is suggested in the TOS that you start here by spending some time using the Search function to mine the archives for the general information you need, rather than posting general questions that have already been answered numerous times before. And that you tell us that you've done that before posting questions. But you asked questions that have already been answered as recently as the last few days.

Second is that sharing accounts is not permitted, so you need to have one, and your wife needs to have a separate one if she's going to participate.

Third, just a word to the wise from an internet old-timer, it's not really safe to use your real name in anonymous forums like this one (or to divulge personal info like phone numbers or email addresses, for that matter), so I suggest you choose an alias to use here, and then send a message to marka requesting the name change to your account. You might even want to send a Direct Message to ask the moderator here to delete this thread so you can start over fresh. The moderator is: 7thGeneration

Good luck!

[Hoosier Girl]

We lived there three years and I worked at Walmart about half that time (so we could have affordable health ins.; DH was self-employed. We found the people to be the most wonderful, warm people we've ever met!!! A few of the older local men did take to me too much at first (I was a middle age white gal), but they come around. It's all about respect and how you treat them. As a 'haole', I was an oddity working at the Walmart, but it all worked out.

We left cause it was too far/expensive for family to come visit and we soon saw flights go up so much we could not return to the mid-west for visits twice a year as we had planned.

The small parks are wonderful and great for snorkeling safely. I didn't want to leave HI, but DH did.

If you want to contact me via private messageing feel free to do so if that is an option on this forum. I haven't been on here but a few times and don't know.

But...if I had the chance, I'd go back in a heartbeat.