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All told, Oahu lost an estimated 20,868 residents, a population decline of 2.1% from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022, according to the Census Bureau estimates. (Estimates for total net loss factor in a “residual” figure that cannot be attributed to a specific demographic component.)
The latest estimates place the island’s population at 995,638, down from 1,016,506 on April 1, 2020, when it first tipped the million mark.
On the neighbor islands, Hawaii County saw the largest-percentage population growth among the state’s counties at 2.8%, which translates to a net gain of 5,684 residents over the 27-month period.
Maui County, meanwhile, had a net loss of 411 residents, a 0.2% drop in population
I bet the population growth on the Big Island is because it's the only place in the state where people can still find affordable housing that's not a falling down fixer upper. Especially in the rural areas like where I live near South Point. For retirees or people who work remotely it's a win-win.
I personally know several people who moved here to the BI during the pandemic when their jobs went fully remote. Most if not all of them paid cash for their houses due to selling in inflated markets like California.
The pandemic was part of it, but I already knew a few transplants who worked remotely before that happened. I think a larger part of it was that most of the rural areas in Puna (where the affordable housing is) was recently wired with fiber internet. A lot of these communities had no broadband internet before, or if it was available, was very expensive and unreliable. More recently, Starlink is available and getting good reviews from people in Hawaii, there isn't a part of the island where reliable broadband isn't available (that I know of).
I didn't read the article, but we're also seeing more transplants from Oahu, mostly remote workers and retirees who are sick of spending all of their money to live in a shoebox.
Another gamechanger was Southwest coming and making inter-island commuting affordable. We're also seeing an increase in people who work hybrid schedules that require them to go to the office in HNL once or twice a week and it's a lot cheaper to live here and pay less than $100/week for a RT ticket.
I’d be willing to bet the bulk of the remote workers have been told to either come to the office at least partially or no longer have a job. As each day goes by the remote worker pool gets thinner by the day.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
982 posts, read 1,162,380 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii
I bet the population growth on the Big Island is because it's the only place in the state where people can still find affordable housing that's not a falling down fixer upper. Especially in the rural areas like where I live near South Point. For retirees or people who work remotely it's a win-win.
Quite a few, yes. When I had my nursery open to the public, I would ask customers (that I didn't recognize or know already), how long they had lived here, where they were from. Quite a few of the new arrivals were folks that were telecommuting and probably the second largest block were people that had sold houses in Maui and Oahu, still wanted to live in Hawai’i and move somewhere more affordable. Some admitted to having been priced out of home ownership in the other islands.
But it is crazy how high property prices have risen on the South end of the Big Island. I see houses that used to go for 100k, now routinely selling for 250k to almost 300k. And some listing in OV and Discovery Harbor (nicer properties) being listed in the 5-600k range.
It's lowed somewhat, but sales still seem pretty active.
Quite a few, yes. When I had my nursery open to the public, I would ask customers (that I didn't recognize or know already), how long they had lived here, where they were from. Quite a few of the new arrivals were folks that were telecommuting and probably the second largest block were people that had sold houses in Maui and Oahu, still wanted to live in Hawai’i and move somewhere more affordable. Some admitted to having been priced out of home ownership in the other islands.
But it is crazy how high property prices have risen on the South end of the Big Island. I see houses that used to go for 100k, now routinely selling for 250k to almost 300k. And some listing in OV and Discovery Harbor (nicer properties) being listed in the 5-600k range.
It's lowed somewhat, but sales still seem pretty active.
Grassy, did you see that there are two properties in Discovery Harbour that are listed for over a million? Of course, neither have sold for that and I don't expect them to.
I’d be willing to bet the bulk of the remote workers have been told to either come to the office at least partially or no longer have a job. As each day goes by the remote worker pool gets thinner by the day.
That is certainly the case for a lot of people on the mainland. The ones that I know here work for themselves and most if not all of those probably don't have to work if they don't want to. I would hope if somebody made a big move like selling their property and moving to Hawaii and worked for someone else, they fully arranged an understanding the remote situation was permanent. I do know one gal who retired early rather than go back to the office, and they were only asking for a 50/50 split. She understood the remote work was temporary but once she had a taste of it decided she'd rather adjust her lifestyle than go back to the rat race.
One thing that I noticed that makes the recent wave of transplants different than I've ever seen before is the number of multi-generational families. Young families bringing their parents or retired parents bringing their kid's young families.
Location: Southernmost tip of the southernmost island in the southernmost state
982 posts, read 1,162,380 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii
Grassy, did you see that there are two properties in Discovery Harbour that are listed for over a million? Of course, neither have sold for that and I don't expect them to.
I have seen that. We also just had a house in OV go for 700k (cash deal, not final yet).
Grassy, did you see that there are two properties in Discovery Harbour that are listed for over a million? Of course, neither have sold for that and I don't expect them to.
Is this one of them? Just showed up on FB marketplace today.
It's listed as WAIOHINU 7BD/6+BA MULTI-UNIT ESTATE FOR SALE
$1,100,000
Our neighbor was a remote programmer when they moved in at the beginning of the pandemic. He tried shifting his mom over here but it was too rural for her so she went back to 'civilization'. Something about theater, museums and opera or some such. Oh, we didn't have good enough restaurants or food delivery options. He's no longer doing much programming, either, but he's doing other things now.
Another programmer family moved over, they're thrashing around at the moment, I don't expect them to hang on long term. They keep making decisions based on mainland knowledge and don't listen when folks try to help them. They'll probably flame out in less than two years, dunno if they have any fallback location, though.
There's already ten tourists per year per resident, if we lose more folks, will the amount of tourists be limited as well? Doubtful!
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Of course, neither have sold for that and I don't expect them to.
