Military family moving to Oahu and need help!! (Ewa Beach: for sale, real estate) - Hawaii (HI) -Includes Honolulu - City-Data Forum

aderd03 · 11-01-2010, 09:12 AM

My husband and I are moving to Oahu with our two dogs in December. He is active duty military and will be working at Pearl Harbor. We can not decide whether or not to live on base or not and I have found conflicting information. I have looked off base and have found some great houses but I am not sure how long the commute will really be to work for my husband. Does anyone have suggestions on where to live (either on/off base) and what areas off base are convenient and have quality homes. Thanks for your help!

Dthraco · 11-01-2010, 10:31 AM

Can't help with the place to live, but you mentioned 2 dogs. Do you already know about the animal quarantine and Rabies shots rules?

timbo31958 · 11-01-2010, 10:47 AM

If I'm not mistaken there are different guidelines for the military. You might want to check into it and avoid spending alot of money when you get here. I would also recommend living on base, there are lots of new housing on all the bases. Some nice homes off base too for that matter, all in all you would be better off to live on base especially since housing prices, and sales have taken such a hit. It is a good time to buy but not so much to sell, just a little more to think about when it comes time to leave Hawaii for another assignment.

cloudcroft · 11-01-2010, 12:58 PM

aderd03,

I assume you've already researched military housing communities on Oahu? If not, I've just picked a few but there are others. I list these just as examples so I'm not recommending any of them in particular:

http://www.mwrarmyhawaii.com/support...ting-to-hawaii
(included tips such as Animal Quarantine)

Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN.com) v7.0

Housing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii

Relocating 2 Oahu: Military Housing

Home - Island Palm Communities

Hawaii home sales for Military stationed in Oahu

Forest City - Properties - Live - Military Housing

Navy Region Hawaii

...and others, including some real estate agents who specialize in military relocations. And although dated, here are some other people dealing with your very same issue so the same advice/answers should apply: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8165119AAKhdpt

Military housing communities are even open to us retired military people (although we're WAY down on the Priority List)...which is one reason I'll be looking into them myself should I want to STAY in HI indefinitely. Will be comparing living in military community housing (paying the BAH rates allowed) with living on the economy, costs-wise.

Good luck...

aderd03 · 11-01-2010, 01:15 PM

Thanks so much for all your help. We have the dogs all ready to go with their shots and paperwork. I knew we would have a lot to do with them so I made them our top priority. I have found houses using ahrn.com that seem as nice as the ones we could get on base. My husband is only an E6 which means we would have to live in a townhouse on base until he made chief. He would like to get a single family home even if it means he would have a commute. I just wanted to know what people living on Oahu thought seeing as we have no first hand experience.

cloudcroft · 11-01-2010, 02:22 PM

The "locals" will probably be here to answer you shortly, but I don't know how many of them are knowledgable about military issues such as housing (as most locals posting here probably are civilians). And they wouldn't know the BAH rates (in your case, E6 rates) you'd be paying for rents in a military community, so they couldn't respond from a military family's perspective...although I believe one member here IS military and lives in the Ewa Beach area (and commutes to Pearl), I don't recall exactly who that is.

As for living off-base "on the economy," most locals here should be able respond to that, since it's most of the housing market!

Maybe getting with a local (HI) realtor -- online registering at their website to be automatically sent info on properties for sale/rent that meet your particular requirements -- would be more helpful, like those agents who specialize in assisting relocating/PCSing military personnel/familes as I mentioned above. For example, I have one Oahu real estate company send me property listings almost every day...it's part of my researching housing (locations and prices) so when I get there, I am as informed as I can be. It's a free service so it doesn't cost me anything yet it keeps me up to date on what's out there, and where. I use the Google Earth map (their "Add Placemark" pushpins) to mark property locations that are the best matches for my needs...I can then see what part of the island they are on, what the neighborhoods look like (aerial, bird's eye and even street level views), where the major roads/highways are, stores/malls, schools, etc...and distances they are from other parts of the island, too. That's quite a bit of info gathered even though long-distance.

The other stuff -- like real-time traffic, commute times and such -- the locals would have to answer (as you know)...but you could do all the rest of the research while you're waiting on them to respond.

Good luck...

alohapam · 11-01-2010, 02:52 PM

I would suggest living on base unless you think you can pocket some BAH, unless they are going to give you run down housing. We lived there for 3 years but we also have kids so it worked for us. If you choose to live off do your homework on areas.

Enjoy Hawaii, it is amazing duty!!

kmcd23 · 11-02-2010, 02:29 AM

I live in base housing, and my husband is an E6. It's a duplex unit, an older one. It has it's pros and cons.

We chose to live in base housing because we have two dogs and couldn't find a place we liked, that we could afford, that allowed two large pets - at least not in a timely fashion. I didn't want to have to board them at all after the flight, so timeliness was a big issue for me.

Plus, we share a car because we didn't want to pay to ship the 2nd vehicle here, so it's nice that my husband can ride his bike to work. Or if I have to drop him off / pick him up, it's very close to the house and my office (I work for the Navy too), so it's no big deal.

He already works such long hours, so we didn't want to add a commute on to that as well, so the location really does work perfect for us. But there are areas that we have considered moving to, off base, that we think would be worth a commute.

If you want some specific info, feel free to message me any questions and I'll try to help.

kinkademp · 06-25-2012, 04:58 PM

I know you posted this in 2010 but I was curious if on base housing (PPV) still allow retired military personnel to live on base? And if so, who do I contact about this.
Thank you,
Penni
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Quote:

Originally Posted by cloudcroft

aderd03,

I assume you've already researched military housing communities on Oahu? If not, I've just picked a few but there are others. I list these just as examples so I'm not recommending any of them in particular:

[url=http://www.mwrarmyhawaii.com/support-services/relocating-to-hawaii]Home[/url]
(included tips such as Animal Quarantine)

[url=http://www.ahrn.com/]Automated Housing Referral Network (AHRN.com) v7.0[/url]

[url=http://usmilitary.about.com/od/navybasesunits/ss/pearlharbor_6.htm]Housing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii[/url]

[url=http://www.relocating2oahu.com/military_housing/index.html]Relocating 2 Oahu: Military Housing[/url]

[url=http://www.islandpalmcommunities.com/]Home - Island Palm Communities[/url]

[url=http://www.alohatony.com/mililtary.php]Hawaii home sales for Military stationed in Oahu[/url]

[url=http://www.forestcity.net/properties/live/military_housing/Pages/default.aspx]Forest City - Properties - Live - Military Housing[/url]

[url=http://www.fcnavyhawaii.com/]Navy Region Hawaii[/url]

...and others, including some real estate agents who specialize in military relocations. And although dated, here are some other people dealing with your very same issue so the same advice/answers should apply: [url=http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090308165119AAKhdpt]Military base housing in Hawaii? - Yahoo! Answers[/url]

Military housing communities are even open to us retired military people (although we're WAY down on the Priority List)...which is one reason I'll be looking into them myself should I want to STAY in HI indefinitely. Will be comparing living in military community housing (paying the BAH rates allowed) with living on the economy, costs-wise.

Good luck...

grizz1y · 06-25-2012, 07:25 PM

Aloha Penni,
General guidance per DUSD(I&E) is:

Priority to occupy homes is given to Service members assigned to the installation. However, if there is not enough demand for housing from military personnel and, as a result, occupancy rates drop below a certain level for a defined period of time, the developer can rent to other personnel. The developer must follow a priority list of other possible tenants as defined by the tenant waterfall. For example, the waterfall could be: (1) other military members not assigned to the installation or unaccompanied service members, (2) federal civil service employees, (3) retired military, (4) guard and reserve military, (5) retired federal civil service employees, (6) DoD contractors/permanent employees and then the (6) general public.

DoD Military Housing Privatization

Bottom line: you need to contact each installation that you are interested in separately, to see if their housing occupancy rates have allowed waterfalling to be open to retired military tenants.