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We are looking for a climate somewhat similar to where we live. A location with an annual rainfall of 30-50 inches per year. We don't mind driving into Kona for diving or shopping and if the wife wants to swim, well we can always put in a lap pool. have no desire to live in a condo nor a tourist infested area. We plan to play golf,garden and get involved within the community. What is the croqui situation like in south Kona?? Our budget is between 750k-1.5m.. We are also looking for an undeveloped beach lot around Kalapana for that beach weekend getaway.
any thoughts you folks have let me know..an aloha out to hotcatz
My mistake Dreaming! Wow - I was way off. I must be thinking of another town...?
Gosh I was thinking someone else told me Holuloa was in the vicinity between Kona & C.C....but I only had 3 hours of sleep last night and have pneumonia right now (have had it the last 3 weeks, then the holidays and everything, kids were all sick too - hence why I haven't been around on CityData in awhile) so my head is in a fog...sorry for the bad information CoachSean!
I know what you're saying Dreaming - with running the kids to sports practices and our busy family lifestyle, etc. being closer to Kona makes sense in terms of convenience. I get that.
But I also love country living and so do my kids. We have 8 acres now out in the boonies and we commute into town for work/school/weekend activities/sports practices, etc. and don't mind it one bit....
I also think from a real estate (and long term enjoyment, as well as when mainland family comes to visit and maybe having space for my mother to live with us someday as she ages, etc.) perspective, that maybe buying the stand alone house with more square footage in Kona Paradise with panoramic ocean views and privacy is maybe a better long term investment than a condo or cramped house in town...I get more bang for my buck down in C.C. in terms of a nicer place and better views and more privacy...
Can't find anything that doesn't need to be totally remodeled (right in Kona) in terms of a traditional house in our price range....and I don't like the aesthetics/scenery of Waikoloa from what I can tell online anyway. Don't want to be on the East side of the island.
There aren't any neighborhoods so far in Kona I'm crazy about (single family homes in North Kona somewhat near the airport are the only ones in our price range.... and I don't like the idea of multi-family dwellings/pick-up trucks, loud neighbors etc. that I have heard about in those areas) and so far, the Alli Cove complex is the only "Kona" option we could afford that is still nice/turn-key and not run down/outdated.
Ugh. I'm so torn.
I like the idea of hanging our clothes out to dry on the line...maybe seeing a donkey in someone's yard, the kids attending a more rural country school....eating dinner out on the lanai without the whole neighborhood watching, etc...those are the things I like about Captain Cook....
The taxes are also substantially higher in town (N/S Kona) to provide us with that city water, etc. and I think we'd be more inclined to run the a/c in a condo instead of just leaving everything wide open like we would at a private house, which is the whole concept of Hawaii/outdoor living to me...
We could just live in an association here if I wanted the proximity to community activities...I can't decide...the two lifestyles would be totally different. We are country people, not city people.
Here's a question. Staying south of C.C., we'd have to have 2 vehicles. With good brakes, no less, considering the steep hill. Maybe even 4WD.
What are your thoughts if we rented or bought at Alli Cove right in Kona instead - could we walk to a lot of things and get by with only 1 car for the first six months living there?
Or is it too congested to really be able to do that?
Anyone know if the middle/high school (the ones right in Kona) are walking distance to the Alli Cove complex?
Also, I keep hearing two different distances from C.C. commuting into Kona...?
Some people say it takes about 20 minutes, others claim 40. Maybe some folks have a heavier foot on the gas pedal Mileage doesn't mean much to me, I'd rather hear drive time.
20 minutes is no big deal to run to Walmart to load up on groceries on Sunday or take the kids to the beach on Saturday. There are at least a couple swimmable beaches in the Kona vicinity I believe, despite that the BEST ones are up in the Kohala Coast, correct?
Double that (40 mins) and it starts seeming farther away...although I didn't mind the 40-60 minutes twice a day here of commuting and running kids to 4 different schools across two counties before even going to work for the morning...I enjoy driving and once everyone was dropped off, I would just listen to the news or radio, return phone calls, unwind, take in the scenery, etc....
The job prospect I may have is in the Kealakekua Bay area, so that was another reason I was honing in on Captain Cook/Kona Paradise....and I like the sounds of the schools down there better and the peace/quiet....getting away from it all. We are coming to Hawaii for a slower pace, to escape the rat race, not be in the midst of it. I don't want to bump into tourists every 5 minutes in Kona...hubby will probably work in Kona, but I think after the work day is over, he'll be happy to drive away from it all too....know what I mean?
Just trying to explain my dilemma and why I was even considering a more remote location in the first place
There are some beautiful places in your price range with incredible views, a pool, privacy, etc. in Captain Cook....some I've seen in the past have been on Napoopoo Road....
If you want peace and quiet with rural seclusion, then you shouldn't even be considering Ali'i Cove or anything on Ali'i Drive.
Don't know where you got the idea about taxes being higher "in town" because of city water. There are no incorporated cities or towns on the Big Island -- it is all one big government run out of Hilo. Any area that has piped in water comes from the Hawaii County Department of Water. It's just that some subdivisions have it (even rural ones) and some don't.
I would estimate that the drive from CC to Kona (using the intersection of Palani and the highway as a focal point) is around 30 minutes. A lot of it depends on traffic because it is a narrow windy road going through many small built-up areas. Add in construction and it can be longer. That's why estimates vary. It has nothing to do with how fast you can drive; it has everything to do with getting behind a long parade of cars making lots of turns off the highway.
There is a by-pass between the southern end of Ali'i Drive and the signal at the post office in Kealakekua. Sometime in the distant future this by-pass may actually be built out to its designed end near Napoopoo Road.
I might have been thinking of the Honaunau area location for you Coach, near C.C...but Holuloa is still a special little place from what I can tell too I, however, should not be commenting at all, considering I haven't even visited.
It should be relatively easy for you to find everything you want in your price range...although there isn't a ton of inventory in each of those little villages...maybe 10 houses for sale from $750-1.5 in Captain Cook, for instance.
I just presumed that...the taxes are much higher here on a condo in the city with public water than our place out in the country, for instance, that has 8 acres and a private well...my mainland thinking getting in the way again! Gotta stop that! "Never assume anything. You don't know what you don't know."
Have you heard any projections on when this by-pass may be complete? Sounds like it will help the flow of traffic coming in/out of town from what you have described and maybe eventually reduce commuting times too?
Hmmm...so from what you and I have each said, it sounds like you don't think I would like Alli Cove or Kona Paradise..do you have any other suggestions for me?
Never assume that ANYTHING in Hawaii is like what you are used to on the mainland!
There are no projections that I know of for when the by-pass will be complete. It is all tied up (and has been for many years) with some proeprty ownership disputes, I believe. You will find that many public and private projects get delayed for years, if not decades, due to archeological/cultural sites that cannot be disturbed.
Actually, you may be happier with something in the CC area, based on your recent comments. Especially if you've already checked out the schools.
When are you coming out to start visiting some of these places?
I know, I know - I violated rule #1! Where's the emoticon where I can smack myself on the forehead?
That makes sense. Seems like everything on an island would take longer no matter what it is -building a house, fixing a road, etc. (And apparently a trip to the DMV or applying for a government permit too from what I've heard )
I don't know - everything is still up in the air. Very annoying for a planner like me.
I got a call from an employer near Kealakekua Bay that wants me to interview in February...I may be able to do the interview by phone or Skype though. Otherwise, I may make a really quick trip to do the interview and scope things out next month - but it would only be a whirlwind trip for a few days by myself (leaving hubby/kids behind) and I don't know if that would even help. Sounds like a big waste of money and won't really give me that much insight in such a short time.
Kinda stuck here in the Seventh Circle of Hell - cough, cough, I mean Northern Michigan - until our house sells. At the mercy of the market. Have already started selling lots of our stuff and boxing up the photo albums/sentimental items into flat rate Priority Mail boxes - only bringing that. Can't sell the furniture yet - leaving the house staged for showings. We're not bringing our cars either - trying to sell those now too.
So we're just waiting on the timing issue to work itself out and for the stars to align, which they probably won't, so we'll have to make some difficult decisions.
Would probably be best for the kids if they finished the school year here and we relocated over summer break. May have to rent our place out here if we can't sell it by the time school lets out in June. Besides, if we kept it here and left it furnished, we'd have a place to come back to if Hawaii was a bust.
We're coming to Hawaii no matter....is what I'm trying to say I guess. Whether there's time for a scouting trip between now and spring or not. I'm just DONE with the long depressing winters - it's no life at all here, just existing And by Michigan standards, this winter has actually been incredibly mild....yet I still absolutely hate it.
We'll just make sure we have those return tickets everyone on here has suggested
Last edited by mommyofmanykids; 01-10-2013 at 03:32 PM..
So the Alli Cove condo gated community area is super crowded then? I wish I could find someone that lived there even a few months out of the year to tell me more about the noise level, how many vacationers frequent it, etc. My research shows that there is at least a 30 day minimum on getting into a VRBO there, so that's good...should limit the comings/goings of transients.
To contradict myself, it WOULD be nice to have a nearby basketball court the kids could walk to, pool, library, etc....that appeals to me in some respects too. Everything close by....they could easily meet up with friends, etc., it wouldn't be such a long drive to go to the beach. Who wants to live in Hawaii and then drive an hour to get to the beach? That sounds like an oxymoron.
On the flip side, maybe we would spend more quality family time together "out and about" doing things if we were right in town because we wouldn't want to be stuck inside the condo, so we'd go exploring more together? I don't know. Kona is so central...30 minutes in either direction and there are things to do, as opposed to being an hour away.
Maybe if we lived all the way down in Captain Cook we'd be bored and end up just sitting in the house because we wouldn't feel like driving all the way into Kona for something to do and there's nothing really in the way of activities for the kids to do in C.C. from what I can tell...I'm still dying to hear from someone with children that lives down there...
Or knowing me, I'd spend all my time fixing a house up/remodeling/decorating it (an older home in Kona Paradise for instance), whereas if I had the zero maintenance newer condo at Alli Cove with all the amenities, I wouldn't have that pressure, so we'd go out and jump in the waves instead and enjoy ourselves instead of being slaves to maintaining a house. BTDT.
I realize these are questions that no one can answer for me, of course. Because I don't even know the answers myself. I think I'm ready to start asking a realtor for advice too.
We may have to do 30 days in a rental in both spots to see which lifestyle we are happiest with - I just don't want to bounce my kids around between different rental homes, different schools, etc once we get there if I can help it - it' will be traumatic enough moving them across the continent and ocean, let alone hopping around more once we arrive.
I just can't decide if we should try out the first 30 day VRBO at Kona Paradise or at Alli Cove and then go from there....maybe being in "town" at first would be best to get our bearings and learn the lay of the land, then head south to C.C. if it ends up being too busy/crowded for us...? Opinions? Thoughts?
It's not like we're going to committ to buying anything until we've been there for at least a year anyway...just narrowing down two ideas/options for possible long-term rental areas after our initial VRBO rental.
Maybe we will just stay in a hotel for the first two weeks until we can decide which VRBO (Alli Cove or Kona Paradise) to try first after seeing the areas in person.
Ugh.
I know what you're going to say:
"This is why you should take a trip here first."
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Mileage doesn't mean much to me, I'd rather hear drive time.
Never assume that ANYTHING in Hawaii is like what you are used to on the mainland!
And by Michigan standards, this winter has actually been incredibly mild....yet I still absolutely hate it. 
