Why is rent so high in Kihei now? (Kapalua: health insurance, condos)

[whtviper1]

In my quick look at rentals there are a lot that seem really nice in the $1,100/month, that is under $40/day - such as this:

1 Bedroom $1115.00

Have you thought about being a police officer - I notice they have openings, high school education is all that is needed, starting salary $53,000 and goes up from there with overtime or shift differentials.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by whtviper1

In my quick look at rentals there are a lot that seem really nice in the $1,100/month, that is under $40/day - such as this:

1 Bedroom $1115.00

Have you thought about being a police officer - I notice they have openings, high school education is all that is needed, starting salary $53,000 and goes up from there with overtime or shift differentials.

No way, I have no desire to be a police officer!

Those apartments aren't available. They're taking applications for future vacancies. It's also more than I can afford. That's why I'm renting a room for $950 including all utilities. My take home pay is $2360/mo which according to people on Maui is "a lot for Maui"... It's $400 more in take home pay than I made at the County, even though the gross salary was the same! But not enough for Kihei

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

My take home pay is $2360/mo which according to people on Maui is "a lot for Maui"... It's $400 more in take home pay than I made at the County, even though the gross salary was the same! But not enough for Kihei

To be on par with what fully-employed males in Kīhei are earning, you need figure out how to increase your income by at least 70%.
U.S. Census American FactFinder Selected Economic Characteristics - Kihei CDP, Hawaii

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by Jonah K

To be on par with what fully-employed males in Kīhei are earning, you need figure out how to increase your income by at least 70%.
U.S. Census American FactFinder Selected Economic Characteristics - Kihei CDP, Hawaii

How did you find that? I had to navigate to Kihei tables myself and the best I could find was mean earnings... $71k. I find that hard to believe. We have to be misreading the data. Unless everybody making less has been priced out of Kihei (like I have)

Edit: Oh wait it's MEAN not median. That means the $71k number is skewed by the few millionaires and billionaires here.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

How did you find that? I had to navigate to Kihei tables myself and the best I could find was mean earnings... $71k. I find that hard to believe. We have to be misreading the data. Unless everybody making less has been priced out of Kihei (like I have)

Edit: Oh wait it's MEAN not median. That means the $71k number is skewed by the few millionaires and billionaires here.

I just navigated to the U.S. Census American FactFinder homepage, typed in "Kihei CDP, Hawaii" in the "Community Facts" search box, and selected the "Income, Employment, Occupation, Commuting to Work..." link when the results popped up.

Let's extract some of the data and do a few calculations...

Median Household Income: $61,515
Mean Household Income: $76,811
Median Family Income: $68,635
Mean Family Income: $85,780
Median Nonfamily Income: $44,813
Mean Nonfamily Income: $56,567
Median Earnings for Workers: $30,826
Median Earnings for Male, Full-Time, Year-Round Workers: $49,242
Median Earnings for Female, Full-Time, Year-Round Workers: $34,671

I took the "median earnings for male, full-time, year-round workers" figure of $49,242 and divided it by 12 to get a monthly median earning figure of $4,103.50. Next, I simply plugged $4,103.50 into my trusty HP19II Business Calculator along with the $2,360/month figure that you gave in your previous post. The percentage that $2,360 needs to increase to reach $4103.50 is actually 73.88%; however, I rounded it down to 70% and qualified it with an "at least" to account for "taxes, withholdings, inflation, etc."

[WaikikiBoy]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

You're basically saying that people can magically conjure up money to pay unlimited sums just because weather is nice. So then why isn't the rent as high in Lahaina, Wailuku, Paia, or Pukalani? Clearly the market is extremely distorted

No, I'm not saying people can magically conjure up money to afford to live wherever they want. Even if we could conjure money, the better conjures would still be able to out bid the less gifted conjures ... Assuming that as in life, not all conjures would have the same skill level of conjuring.

I'm saying that in life you can't always have everything you want just because you want it. And advocating laws to diminish one persons freedoms and opportunities as a means to forceably get what you want isnt an appropriate solution in a free society.

So rents are too high for you to live in Kihei. But at least you've found a nice place a short distance away, your commute is pretty average compared to most of America and as you've described, your life is 100x better. So in my opinion, accentuate the positive, and forget about the things you can't afford and you'll live a happy life in Maui.

And for the rest of us, we'll get the benefit of seeing Maui through your lense as you hopefully will start posting pictures again. Which I always enjoyed seeing.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by Jonah K

Median Earnings for Male, Full-Time, Year-Round Workers: $49,242

That person can easily afford the Kihei rent.......

[davephan]

Have you thought about getting a second job? When I worked in a low-pay poor working conditions job years ago, either people went to school part time with just the one low-pay job or they had a second job if they didn't go to school. It's a lousy life if you have to work 2 or even 3 jobs. Working day and night, seven days a week. You might be able to afford to live where you want to live. Although you wouldn't be there much of the time because you're stuck working all the time. So then you're living in paradise, but you can't enjoy it. It seems self defeating to me.

That's why I think living in Hawaii during you're working years is tough. There aren't many high paying jobs there, unless you can bring you're mainland job with you. Even then, the cost of living is very high in Hawaii, so that would make it hard to save enough for retirement. If you don't save enough for retirement, then you might have to work till you die or move off the island to afford retirement in a cheaper place on the mainland.

For me, working on the mainland for a lot more money and living well below our means allows us to save a lot of money for retirement. It is investing in our future, so we will be able to afford to live in Hawaii when we retire. In our case, that's only a little over five years away. We could retire today if we limited ourselves to staying in Minnesota, plus snowbirding in Florida. Working the extra five years gives us the freedom to be able to pay the price to live in Hawaii, if we choose to spend the extra money that it takes to live there.

I don't see that type of long term planning with a lot of people. When you are younger, you need to get an education in the right field that pays well. Not necessarily something you like to do. That investment of about 4 or 5 years working hard in school, not just shuffling through school, sets you up for a good life in the future. Living well below you means for a couple decades sets you up to become a millionaire. You have then made the sacrifices in your life, which gives you the freedom to live in paradise.

[72andsunny]

Originally Posted by Jonah K

Median Earnings for Male, Full-Time, Year-Round Workers: $49,242
Median Earnings for Female, Full-Time, Year-Round Workers: $34,671

Looks like a pretty good deal for me in Kihei. I am totally moving.

[MauiPartTimer]

Originally Posted by Jonah K

I took the "median earnings for male, full-time, year-round workers" figure of $49,242 and divided it by 12 to get a monthly median earning figure of $4,103.50. Next, I simply plugged $4,103.50 into my trusty HP19II Business Calculator along with the $2,360/month figure that you gave in your previous post. The percentage that $2,360 needs to increase to reach $4103.50 is actually 73.88%; however, I rounded it down to 70% and qualified it with an "at least" to account for "taxes, withholdings, inflation, etc."

Rounding down from 73.88% to 70% to account for taxes was probably insufficient. Wink said his "take-home" (i.e."net") was $2360 and all the number you quoted were gross pay.

Wink,
Compare your own gross earnings to the numbers Jonah provided for an appples-to-apples comparison.