How can anyone afford to live here? (Honolulu, Ewa Beach: low income, fit in)

[hotzcatz]

Yup, both parents working is another way folks manage to live here. Our friends just moved to be closer to her mom since they now have two kids and can't afford daycare to for two.

[dgfurman]

Originally Posted by Mililani Gal

I live in Mililani Town, 4br/2.5 bath townhome purchased 1.5 years ago for $407,000. It's got about 1400 sq ft, 1 covered carport and 1 open parking. Our maintenance fee has just gone up and in addition to our mortgage we pay almost $500/mo for our maintenance fee, plus Mililani Town Association's fee of $33/mo.

We try to conserve electricity and our monthly bill averages about $140. Most people I ask that own a single family home are paying $200/mo. I'm not sure what water costs, but I know it's increasing because of sewar improvements being made by the City and COunty of Honolulu, thus, the increase to my maintenance fee.

Gasoline right now is $2.35 at the Waipio Costco.

I've work at the University of Hawaii in fiscal for the last 13 years and my husband also works at UH doing administrative work for the last 5 years. We make a combined gross income of $100K.

My older daughter attends public elementary, my younger daughter attends preschool/daycare at $650/mo. We struggle to make ends meet but if we eat-in more often and stopped buying gifts for friends birthdyas, retirements, etc. it would be easier. But what kind of life would that be.

We sacrifice by not going to the mall and taking advantage of my dad's commissary benefits.

It's doable, but we don't have "play money," which can be frustrating and has taken a toll on us.

Thanks for responding. I kind of thought that's what the situation must be like there, and it's good to have that clarified. Well, I think we'll just keep visiting for now...

[busybody]

extended families

Originally Posted by dgfurman

My husband and I were looking into HI as a place to live, and housing costs (not to mention grocery costs) are outrageous. How does anyone (besides the extremely wealthy) afford to live here? Do people in the middle class all live in tiny condos? What if you have several kids and pets? Thanks!

[newUHprof]

Originally Posted by Mililani Gal

I live in Mililani Town... I've work at the University of Hawaii in fiscal for the last 13 years and my husband also works at UH doing administrative work for the last 5 years.

A bit off topic, but what's your commute like from Mililani to UH? We're looking at buying a place. Live in town now, but rent. I'm just curious if we should expand our search, or if I would hate the commute. Thanks for any reply!

[Mililani Gal]

Originally Posted by newUHprof

A bit off topic, but what's your commute like from Mililani to UH? We're looking at buying a place. Live in town now, but rent. I'm just curious if we should expand our search, or if I would hate the commute. Thanks for any reply!

I carpool with 2 other people so my commute at 7:00 am to UH takes about 45 minutes using the Zipper Lane (3 or more HOV lane). When I don't use the Zipper lane it takes about 1 hour. In the afternoon it takes again 45 min-1 hour.

If you can afford to stay closer to UH I would recommend it. Check out the Kaimuki, Salt Lake/Moanalua, areas. You will have a better quality of life situation. I really do feel that although Mililani is a nice area to raise a family it sucks that I waste 2 hours of my daylight hours in traffic. On the weekends we completely avoid going into town.

By the way, welcome to the UH Ohana!

[NoMoreSTL]

For us, the only way we can afford to live here is:
-My fiancee is in the military. The housing allowance is a huge blessing- we'd probably be living in a tiny shoebox apartment if it wasn't for his BHA.
-We both have a job and are bringing in money already- I'm lucky that my job thinks enough of me to keep me on board 4000 miles away and 4 hours behind their time.
-We saved, saved, and saved some more prior to the big move. As with any move, but especially when starting relatively from scratch, we knew we were going to BLEED money as soon as we stepped off the plane. We were right. You'd be astonished at how quickly the money flies out of your account!
-Again, the military thing... We do our grocery shopping at the commisary at Hickam AFB where grocery prices are somewhat normal. The things I've noticed to be radically more expensive than their mainland counterparts are milk, bread, chap stick (!), and soda. $3 a tube for regular Cherry Chapstick (as opposed to $1 in St. Louis)?! Looks like I'll have to calm down on my chapstick habit. ; )
-I work from home, so that means only one of us is burning gas each day. He can also buy his petrol on post for a cheaper price.
-Coupons! I clip coupons for when we shop at the local grocery store instead of the commissary. Our local store also has a membership program where you get discounts on some items when you present your (free) membership card.

[newUHprof]

Originally Posted by Mililani Gal

If you can afford to stay closer to UH I would recommend it. Check out the Kaimuki, Salt Lake/Moanalua, areas. You will have a better quality of life situation. I really do feel that although Mililani is a nice area to raise a family it sucks that I waste 2 hours of my daylight hours in traffic. On the weekends we completely avoid going into town.

By the way, welcome to the UH Ohana!

Thanks so much for the info... that's what I thought. I really love living in town, and we don't have kids, so we don't really need a big place. The main thing is that though we found a terrific pet-friendly rental, we're having a hard time finding a condo to buy that will allow three pets (one dog, two cats). They all seem to have one or two pet limits. So we started thinking about single families, which means we started thinking about moving further out. But I think we'll hold out. We really like it here. I had enough of wasting time in a car when I was in LA last year, and I really want to avoid doing that again. It was not good for me!

And thanks for the welcome. I've been here since May, and I'm loving it. UH has all the usual problems of a big state school, but I have felt nothing but supported since I arrived.

[hotzcatz]

That would work if you don't mind vog and don't need a job to support yourself. Otherwise you are commuting to Kona which is a LONG drive, loads of traffic as well as the price of gasoline. Diesel is still around $4.50 a gallon even though gas has gone down a bit.

Have you ever been to HOVE?

[maui08]

Just noticed this question. To answer it simply (in my opinion)...you don't "afford" to live here, you "survive". -Unless you change your habits and way of life financially Hawaii will be difficult on anyone. We enjoy and miss our "play" money so leaving the islands after 15 years won't be hard for us.

[TXLara]

We afford to live here by not really paying for it. Neat trick, huh? How does that work? My husband is a contractor and his company/the company he's contractor for pays for our housing, furniture, utilities, and rental car. We also get a small stipend for food. But since we're still paying a mortgage, car payment, utilities, etc for our house/car back home, we're not making money off of it.

So:
-We always eat at home
-We never go to the movies. It's Netflix, baby!
-We learned that when you go to the store, you buy what's on sale and make dinner with that. If you're really craving something, you just wait until it goes on sale the next week, or you go without.
-You find cheap sources of entertainment, like puzzles, cards, yard sale books for .50, watching North Shore surfers, driving up and down the Kam Hwy, hiking
-Make friends in your neighborhood so you have people to hang out with for free
-If you want to do something expensive, invite lots of people to go with you and split the cost
-Always drink at home, never at a bar. Food is wildly expensive, but alcohol is suprisingly cheap at the grocery store. Go figure.
-At least three people can tell you how to do something cheaper than you know how to, so take their advice. Also, if you're a civvie and a military person offers to take you to the commasary, GO WITH THEM.
-Quit smoking because it's really expensive

And don't move to Ewa Beach if you hate traffic b/c there's only one way in and out and that's Fort Weaver road and there is ALWAYS traffic on it, even at 2am on a Tuesday. Go live anywhere else and you will be much happier.