From Idaho to Hawaii, looking for a safe home (Honolulu: fit in, rent)

[aloha717200]

Aloha everyone, new member here.

My wife and I share a dream to move to Hawaii within the next few years, and right now I'm doing as much research as I can to find a good place for us to live. At the moment, I'm looking at the crime rates, and I'm not finding as much info as I'd like. Usually just county-wide statistics, or crime rates within a zip code, but not much for specific cities. I was hoping the kama'aina here might be willing to help us?

What we're concerned most about is crime in Hawaii.

We're kind of leaning towards moving to Maui, it's not too big or small, not too overdeveloped but not too rural, and the land is so diverse. But we've been reading the Maui News online lately and it seems like there's a lot of crime on Maui going on. We've read a lot of burglary and car theft news, and a few reports of people being attacked on beaches as well. It kind of scares us, but we're hoping that there's more to the story than what we're seeing in the newspaper. We are both haole, and from some I've heard that it doesn't matter, others say that being haole makes you a target in certain areas. We like a mix of cultures and people, it makes for great conversation, but it might take a while for us to get to know everyone.

Oahu seems a little too busy and again we worry about crime there too, but I hear Kailua and Kaneohe are safe areas.

Kauai might be a little too rural for us, maybe a little too small as an island, as we like to get outdoors and explore from time to time. Big island has plenty of room and the crime rates look really low from what I've seen, but Maui is the one that really pulls at me.

I work in hotels, I'm a houseman/bellhop, low guy on the totem pole but I love the work. Since there's so many hotels in Hawaii I hope I could find a job like this in the islands? I'd work a second job if needed to make rent. My wife works too and we've both decided we could work harder to make $1,500 a month rent if we had to.

We love the culture and history of Hawaii, the geology, the aviation and all that makes up what is unique about the islands. We're just hoping that we could fit in once we arrive.

We both grew up in Idaho, so we're used to a semi-rural kind of life, people are pretty friendly where I'm from and violent crime isn't very common. It's a great place to live, but I've lived most of my life being passionate about hawaii! When I was little I used to dream many nights about Hawaii, going places I'd never seen. One day I picked up a picture book of hawaii and opened it to find all these photos of places that I'd been to in my dreams, and from that moment I was hooked on Hawaii for life. All through high school I had my nose in books about hawaii and the south pacific islands, and when I married my wife I showed her all I loved about Hawaii and now she's got the same spirit for the islands that I do.

But we don't want to rush into Hawaii without making sure we've found the right place for us. I love Maui but I don't want to put our safety or security at risk if there is indeed a real crime problem going on there.

Is Maui a safe place to live? Or are we better off on another island? Is there anything we can do to help become a part of the community? We are both very outgoing and love to meet people, and living somewhere with a sense of 'ohana is important to us.

Your advice and help is greatly appreciated.

Mahalo plenty,

Brandon and Katie

[Brav989]

I've read crime statistics and Honolulu has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation for cities of 250,000 or more people, and was ranked 71/72 for murder. Not really sure about the other islands however.

[aloha717200]

Most of the crime data that I've been able to find is on Sperling's Bestplaces. They rank Oahu 6/10 for violent crime (10 being worst), and 8/10 for property crime.

Moderator cut: link deleted

They don't have much data on other Oahu cities, but have data on the neighbor islands. For my hometown, they rank us a 3/10 for violent crime, 5/10 for property crime, which seems about right. In this town people feel safe enough to leave their homes unlocked much of the time. I don't, as I had an attempted break-in just a couple months ago at my place, but overall this is a safe city. My wife and I were hoping to settle somewhere that'd be safe to raise kids, and have a little peace of mind that our home would be safe from burglaries.

We'd take all precautions like locking doors and windows just in case, but I'd rather look in the right areas for a place to live.

[Kcsride]

My husband and I are also moving to Hawaii in 2 years. We have chosen Kauai because we like the beauty and the simplicity of the Island. We also like Maui, but it seems to be getting too crowded. We have a realator looking for houses for us and there are many nice homes out there. Have to sell the home we have now, Minden, NV., but don't see a problem. I lived on Oahu when I was a kid and loved it. Good luck and we can't wait. kcsride

[~elise~]

Aloha, from the Big Island of Hawaii!!
I found this link that allows you to compare the crime rate in one US city to the crime rate in another.
In some cases, it is about the same in towns and cities in Hawaii as it is in the mainland. In other cases, it is slightly higher. I know that where we live, on the Big Island, there are few murders, but the drug problem is widespread. Each island has it's particular problem area, but I have felt safer the last 10 years in Hawaii than I ever did in the mainland.


As for employment, I always tell anyone who wants to live in Hawaii-- be prepared to do any job that is available, change your eating habits (cut out the expensive processed foods and buy fresh fruit and vegetables) and live more simply than you have in the mainland ;go to town only when you have 4 or 5 errands to do--gas will always be more expensive in Hawaii.
I think Hawaii is a wonderful place to live....go for it!

You will be happy you did!

~elise~