North Florida to Big Island (apartment, rental, condo)

[Old_Rider]

Thanks for the replies!
A lot of good information to put into the pool.
My lot is actually about the same size as the ones I have been looking at (google street view) about the same greenery, the only difference I have been seeing is the houses are above the ground on 3' stilts, although I have seen a few concrete foundations. And the houses are about half the size of the ones in my neighborhood. We have what are called "monster slabs", it is a very thick slab of concrete with a lip facing down, so that it "floats". More often than not all foundations end up cracking.
Thanks for the information on shipping stuff in.... I have amazon prime, so it will be good.
I hear there are a few named stores on the dry side of the island, so at least I could travel there and see what they have. But here if you have it shipped to the store, they don't charge shipping.
Other things like, phone services and prices, and network/cable tv services and electric prices per month averages would be helpful.
We are attempting to plan on a 30 year anniversary honeymoon in September, hoping to stay at the military recreation center...... or a local if they would rent for two weeks. As with anywhere in the world, airline prices and rentals are at a premium so if worse comes to worse, we will vacation here and I will attempt a one month studio and look around.

[Old_Rider]

Was looking up crime rates on the big island in Hawaiian Beaches and Nanawale... using Hawaii Police Department , and wow... you guys don't have crime?
I went to the police site and typed in the area's... is there a newer site i'm missing?
Thanks for any replies
Attempting to do research while I have the time.....

[Jane M]

OP: What is drawing you to Hawaii? It can't be just the weather. The weather here is practically the same as Florida especially south FL

[hotzcatz]

Tons of crime in the Puna district, most of it is the break-in and theft types, although there is the occasional violent crime as well. If you want less crime go to the other side of Hilo along the Hamakua coast or up towards Hawi & Kohala. Kilauea Military Camp is a lovely spot to stay if you're military. Maybe you'll like the Volcano area, it has a little less crime than the Pahoa and lower Puna area, but still quite a lot of break ins.

[smarino]

The weather is not quite what is here in Florida (I wish that it were). Hilo might get hot, but there is not much on earth like Florida summers. Lots more humid, and definitely not for everyone. Winters are gorgeous though, although it can get cold on the northern end of the state. Unless the trades drop off, as they occasionally do, the humidity on the B.I. is a walk in the park compared to Florida. Lots more rain on the Hilo side of the island than anything the op has experienced where they are too. There's all kinds of leases in Florida, not just 2 year ones (which frankly I have never even heard of). Month to month, 6 month, 1 year, etc. It's pretty much whatever deal you want to do, although yearly is probably more popular.

The best advice has already been given....come and stay for a while before you buy anything. Good advice for anyplace, actually. Hawaii is not everyone's cup of tea once the new wears off, and the cost of things can be a little startling. Not just for housing, but for most everything that has to be shipped over. Things will cost you a lot more than you're used to back home. Shopping options can be limited as well. I shopped for a lot of stuff online when we lived in Hilo, and even w/ the shipping it was often cheaper than looking for it locally (and it usually wasn't available locally anyway).

For sure there's crime, and while Volcano may have less, it can be cold and rainy up there. My wife's son in Hilo says the phone and internet are not that expensive, it's the electric that is killing him. HELCO was toward the top of the highest cost per kilowatt hour in the nation the last time I checked. They're not a lot of fun to deal w/ either :} You might find the September airline rates better than you expect. I saw some attractive rates a couple of months ago, but when we booked our flights from St Pete to Hilo for this coming June they had jumped considerably. The nice thing is that when once we get to L.A., it's straight to Hilo w/o the usual stopover on O'ahu. Give me a PM if you need any extra info on the B.I. It's been a while since we lived there, but the wife's youngest son is still there, and we still know a lot of people and get back now and then. Congratulations on the 30 year anniversary. That is amazing. We're at about your halfway mark on that one.

[Jane M]

I was wondering if the OP wanted some place more warmer or cooler. North Florida can get cold (to some people I guess).

[lily4]

Originally Posted by smarino

The weather is not quite what is here in Florida (I wish that it were). Hilo might get hot, but there is not much on earth like Florida summers. Lots more humid, and definitely not for everyone. Winters are gorgeous though, although it can get cold on the northern end of the state. Unless the trades drop off, as they occasionally do, the humidity on the B.I. is a walk in the park compared to Florida. Lots more rain on the Hilo side of the island than anything the op has experienced where they are too. There's all kinds of leases in Florida, not just 2 year ones (which frankly I have never even heard of). Month to month, 6 month, 1 year, etc. It's pretty much whatever deal you want to do, although yearly is probably more popular.

The best advice has already been given....come and stay for a while before you buy anything. Good advice for anyplace, actually. Hawaii is not everyone's cup of tea once the new wears off, and the cost of things can be a little startling. Not just for housing, but for most everything that has to be shipped over. Things will cost you a lot more than you're used to back home. Shopping options can be limited as well. I shopped for a lot of stuff online when we lived in Hilo, and even w/ the shipping it was often cheaper than looking for it locally (and it usually wasn't available locally anyway).

For sure there's crime, and while Volcano may have less, it can be cold and rainy up there. My wife's son in Hilo says the phone and internet are not that expensive, it's the electric that is killing him. HELCO was toward the top of the highest cost per kilowatt hour in the nation the last time I checked. They're not a lot of fun to deal w/ either :} You might find the September airline rates better than you expect. I saw some attractive rates a couple of months ago, but when we booked our flights from St Pete to Hilo for this coming June they had jumped considerably. The nice thing is that when once we get to L.A., it's straight to Hilo w/o the usual stopover on O'ahu. Give me a PM if you need any extra info on the B.I. It's been a while since we lived there, but the wife's youngest son is still there, and we still know a lot of people and get back now and then. Congratulations on the 30 year anniversary. That is amazing. We're at about your halfway mark on that one.

This is very accurate information. I agree that the weather in Florida is not as nice as Hawaii. Although, the winters in Florida are nice. I like that I can afford to run A/C in Florida. In Hawaii, HELCO rates are so crazy high that there is no way we could afford it and there are plenty of times when it's too hot for me.

[davephan]

The first step is to visit the Big Island in person. Your perception of the Big Island will change after you've visited the first time. It's much different than you are thinking when looking at it from afar on the Internet. Your will to relocate to the Big Island could be much stronger after spending only a day there in person. But it takes more time than that for you to be more certain, to avoid making a mistake in life, or to risk incurring a major financial set back in your life. When you are near retirement, you don't have as many working years to recover from a large financial set back in life.

The first step is the first visit. When we visit Hawaii, we spend about $5K for two weeks and rent VRBO houses or condos. We generally stay at places priced about $130 to $150 a night. Weekly rates are usually discounted a bit, and there are minimum stays, usually 2 days to a week, plus usually a cleaning fee. When you stay at a VRBO rental house or condo, you will feel more like you are living there, rather than staying at a hotel, even though it is for a short time. You should probably visit 2 or 3 times before you firm up your plans to move to the Big Island.

We've found that houses are generally double in price compared to houses in Florida for similar homes. Condos are more affordable, but then you're stuck paying the monthly maintenance fee forever, which could be about $500 a month. You'll also be stuck paying the high electric rates, which may be about 3 times higher than Florida. Solar is a solution for the high cost of electricity. The pay back time might be as short as 5 years, but you have to put about $20K to $30K up front to have a system installed. In Hawaii, it's pretty expensive to use AC, so you think about it more when you run the AC because of the much higher cost. In Florida, I'm sure you don't think about the AC cost at all. You probably turn on the AC for at least 7 months each year, without evening thinking about the electricity cost. But the summers aren't as hot and humid in Hawaii compared to Florida, not even close from what I've heard. I haven't visited Florida or Hawaii in the summertime yet. We plan to visit Florida this summer so we can experience how hot and humid it is when we there there in person. We want to find out if we can hack that kind of brutal hot and humid weather in SW Florida. Or, maybe SW Florida is only snowbird material, if we chose that retirement location. Hawaii is supposed to be hotter in the summers, but not that much hotter. Plus you could locate in a higher elevation area, which is cooler. You can't do that in Florida. You can only be closer to the coast in Florida for some temperature relief.

There are a lot of positives about living in Hawaii, such as the weather. But there are a lot of negatives too, just like anywhere you might choose to live has negatives. You might think that living in the Puna area is attractive because of the lower prices. But along with the lower prices comes the crimes, probably being committed mainly by career criminals who think it's perfectly acceptable to commit criminal acts instead living in a proper manner in society. Since burglary crime is somewhat out of control in the Puna area, the justice system is weak. The career criminals are not being locked up for lengthly prison sentences. You can reduce those crime risks if you live in a higher cost area on the Big Island. Either way you pay. Higher costs in the north, or more risk of being a victim of crime in the south.

If you have chronic health care issues now, or in the future, the Big Island may not be for you. If you have family and friends you visit with on a frequent basis now, that will end. You family and friends might say that they'll visit you in Hawaii, but in reality, they will never visit or might visit one time, then never again. The distance, cost both in money and time will permainantly isolate you.

If you're still in you working years, don't count on finding a job right away. You may be discriminated against, making it tough to find a job, at least a decent job. You might end up working several part time undesirable, low wage, no benefits jobs. Taxes are a lot higher in Hawaii than Florida too. There wages are generally quite low in Hawaii, even though the cost of living is very high. It might be better to think about the Big Island as a place to live after you are done working, if you still have your health at that time.

Most people only last 1 to 2 years on Hawaii before they have to move back to the mainland. So, the odds are stacked against you from the start. Things might work out, but it's more likely they won't work out. If you have a lot of money, or can live at a lower standard of living, your odds are better.

The cost of food is a lot higher in Hawaii. When you visit, check out some grocery stores and farmers markets. The high prices will take your breath away! There are some YouTube videos where you can see the high food prices without visiting in person. Don't think that access to the Internet is universal, like where you live now. There are some areas that don't have decent Internet access. All the ports might be occupied in an area, shutting you out. When that happens in the mainland, the Internet provider would simply add more ports, because the Internet provider wants more customers. It doesn't seem to work that way in Hawaii. So, you might end up calling every day to try to get Internet service, and hit the lottery when a port opens up because another customer dropped, moved or maybe stopped paying their bills.

Have you considered moving from north Flordia to south Florida? The winters are better in south Florida, but the risk of hurricanes is higher in south Florida.

Keep researching the Big Island. It might work out for you, but since the odds are not in your favor, you have to be careful, very careful.

[Jane M]

Originally Posted by lily4

T I like that I can afford to run A/C in Florida. In Hawaii, HELCO rates are so crazy high that there is no way we could afford it and there are plenty of times when it's too hot for me.

right on. I have to say that I am pretty miserable here in HI already and over 30 years in FL I was never this miserable. Has to be the air con. True about HELCO. last month I ran my dryer for 20 minutes and it cost me an extra $23 on my electric bill. Not kidding.

[Jane M]

Originally Posted by davephan

T

Have you considered moving from north Flordia to south Florida? The winters are better in south Florida, but the risk of hurricanes is higher in south Florida.

This would be my solution exactly. Why move to HI? South Florida (gulf or atlantic side) is beautiful.