Contemplating a move to HI (Waimea, Waikoloa Village: rentals, condos, hotels)

[gronkforlife]

Originally Posted by steiconi

What is it about Hawaii that attracts you?
The beaches? go to Kona.
The volcano? live in Puna.
Schools? maybe Oahu.

For me it's the time change...I work an overnight shift in the EST. Moving to HI would allow me the ability to work an evening shift instead without having to work overnight.

My wife and I also like the weather and the tropical lifestyle of being outdoors and enjoying year round great weather.

[gronkforlife]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Waimea, maybe? Kohala?

Best school is Hawaii Prep, but that's an expensive private school.

Convenience to what?

Probably best to move over and rent for a year to see if you like it and to narrow down the exact location you prefer.

Convenience to shops, groceries, restaurants and the airport.

[gronkforlife]

Originally Posted by davephan

The $1.5 M home budget in Hawaii will buy about the same level of home that you’d buy in Florida for about $500K to $700K. Prices could be closer if the location in Florida is on ocean front property or some other high end locations in Florida. The cost of living, in general is double, from Florida to Hawaii. Make sure you can get high speed Internet where you choose to live in Hawaii. There are many stories about locations where high speed Internet ‘should’ be available, but isn’t because all the ports are in use. You might have to call every day to check if a port opened up, while you’re stuck using satellite Internet.

If you have school aged children, you’ll probably have to pay for private school. The schools in Hawaii are worse than the poor performing schools in Florida. Healthcare is bottom of the barrel too. But the weather is hands down consistently better in Hawaii than Florida, but it has a high admission price, unless you want to lower your standard of living.

If you have to be on-line when the rest of the country is working, you’ll have to get up very early. You’d have to wake up in the middle of the night if you start trading stocks when the stock market opens because of the time zone differences.

Check out food prices in Hawaii. There’s many YouTube videos that will show you the sticker shock! Electricity costs about triple in Hawaii compared to Florida. People use a lot less AC in Hawaii than Florida. Many people are reluctant to use a lot of AC in Hawaii because of the extremely high electricity cost. But Hawaii’s climate isn’t as extreme as Florida’s climate. When the temperature and humidity are mildly uncomfortable at both locations, people in Florida would use their central AC without thinking about it. In Hawaii, in general, people in Hawaii would put up with runnning fans instead of the AC.

There’s kind of a weird mentality in Hawaii that you have to live there for many years before you can start forming friendships. Not like Florida, where most people that live in Florida, weren’t born in Florida, and doesn’t have the weird ‘local’ mentality. Hawaii is controlled by liberals. If you’re conservative, you’re not going to like that. Criminals seem to be coddled in Hawaii, so you’ll need to live in an area with less crime. When you get to the point where you start pulling out pretax retirement account money, the state income taxes are going to be painfull.

Liberalism and Hawaii are expected. I'm not a conservative but I would say I do lean to the right. Internet is an absolute key for my wife and I.

Thanks for the valuable info!

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by ginmqi

Interesting.

Is there a certain % of Hawaiian minimum you have to meet to buy those properties?

And of course I assume the seller/realtor will do their due dilligence to investigate and certify that someone is actually of Hawaiian blood.

Although another issue that raises my curiosity....what stops some guy from paying a hawaiian to buy the house and then deed it over to him/her later? Is there a way to enforce this?

50% last I heard.

I'm not certain, but I think DHHL lands are all leasehold and you're just getting the lease from DHHL. But, I dunno for sure. I've heard that sometimes the kids don't get the property when the elders pass away because they don't meed the blood percentage requirements anymore.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by Semper Armati

You have to ask yourself that $64,000 question, "Am I that big a gluten for punishment?". Makes the Redneck Riviera look positively top shelf - except, perhaps, climate.

If you’re seeking a liberal mecca in a red state, like Florida, you could live in the Miami area. In Texas, the liberal mecca area is Austin.

The biggest upside to Hawaii is the climate, which is hard to beat if you like consistently nice warm weather, that’s not too hot. But there are downsides, the cost of living, isolation, poor schools, poor healthcare, and an undertow of racism against Caucasians. Most people who move to Hawaii don’t last more than a year or two. If you have a high net worth, and you’re willing to spend a lot of money, or severely lower your standard of living, your odds are better, to stay longer.

[Rain Monkey]

Originally Posted by gronkforlife

Convenience to shops, groceries, restaurants and the airport.

Just some local advice from someone who lives on Oahu. I am unsure if you have ever been to the BI, and if not, I would suggest spending some time on the island to get as a minimum, a tertiary understanding of the place. Secondly, I would highly recommend paying very close attention to BI resident posters like Hotzcatz and others who have far greater insight on the workings of the BI than myself or others who neither reside on the BI nor actually live in Hawai'i.

Convenience to shops, groceries, restaurants, etc. are pretty broad categories. What kind of shops and grocery stores are you planning to frequent? What is your choice in restaurants? Were do you plan to travel
to? Going to and from the BI can be time consuming due to the lack of direct flights.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by Rain Monkey

Going to and from the BI can be time consuming due to the lack of direct flights.

KOA enjoys several direct flights from mainland.

Convenience to shops and airport? Check out Waikaloa.

[Nyfinestbxtf]

There are some nice properties along the Hamakua coast (northern East side) with acreage that is well below your budget. It’s very beautiful over there. Another beautiful area is Hawi; we liked that area the most.

Make sure you visit to get a feel for things if you haven’t. In our week and a half visit to the BI we were able to get a good enough feel that things there are very different than the mainland; culture, amenities, food, prices, the pace, and so on. We will be making a couple more visits to other islands before our move for we are not sure what island we will end up on. I see that you posted you are right leaning and I honestly do not think that matters. I’m Conservative and I didn’t notice anything political during my visit. I think there are too many other things to do than to get hung up on politics. I’ll will be use to my vote not counting anyway coming from NY. Anyway, I didn’t come across one rude person and every person we engaged we went out of their way to be helpful. We drove all over and stopped at as many places as we could having conversations with as many people as we could. I think we put about 1300 miles on our rental. From what I noticed, it is common to have long conversations with people you never met. I found that to be pretty cool. Being helpful to others seem like a pretty important part of the Hawai‘i culture as well. We were about to get into our car and an older man walked up to me and asked if I could help him carry a heavy piece of machinery across the street to the UPS. He asked if I needed help and told him “nope, I got this.” Threw it up on my shoulder and that was that. UPS Guy was jokingly breaking my chops that I was showing off my size. On the mainland I find it rare for anyone to ask for help or even offer help.

[hotzcatz]

It's an island, we all have to help each other. That's a pretty basic bottom line around here no matter what one's worldview may be.

If access to airports matter, then that limits things since there's only two big airports on the island. There's some smaller ones, but they don't fly anything bigger than the occasional inter-island flight out of them. Unless, of course, you have your own plane, then it's different, I suppose.

You may like the Kona Palisades area for access, although sometimes it gets vog in that area. It's pretty much up and down, too, not a lot of level lots there. For level lots, maybe Pinetrees down on the Kailua-Kona flat area, although that's hotter.

I don't think Hilo has any direct mainland flights, although there are some out of Kailua-Kona (KOA). Sometimes they're seasonal, too, and they aren't always there.

Other things to look at are such oddball things as in if the lot has any soil on it. That is, if you like to garden. In other areas, check the lava maps to see if your proposed new house is likely to be adversely affected by probable lava flows. Generally the lava moves pretty slow, but if it cuts off the only road in and out of an area it causes trouble even if your house doesn't get covered. Lack of soil shows up on the Kona side, mostly the lava issues are over in the Puna area.

[Joliefille]

Originally Posted by Blind Cleric

KOA enjoys several direct flights from mainland.

Convenience to shops and airport? Check out Waikaloa.

Hahaha, what? Waikola resort, a couple of over priced restaurants, ABC store and 1 gas station. Waikoloa village, one overpriced grocery store, a couple of lame restaurants and one over priced gas station.