Maui living vs. Big Island living

[mdand3boys]

Puna, as a "district" is about 319,000 acres which is almost the size of the entire island of Oahu! Puna's population is about 30,000.

[sarah95207]

This is our dilemma now. Thanks for the responses. It gives us some perspective.
I also have questions regarding the Kona area hospitals vs Maui hospitals? Also schools- which is a better area for elementary school? My family is moving over there shortly. I am a nurse and my husband is a high school teacher. My son will start kindergarden when we get over there.
Just looking for a nice family community to settle into. I will be coming in a few weeks to check things out. If anyone can suggest areas I should check out that would be helpful? I want to to look at both Big Island and Maui. Probably more Kona side and anywhere in Maui, we don't know much about Maui.
Since our move is centered around my job at a hospital I would like to be about 30 minutes from a hospital.
thanks in advance
sarah

[whynot?]

Maui has only one hospital. It's in Kahului, but kind of on the border of Wailuku. There's more traffic (especially early morning and afternoons) than you might think, so what seems like 30 minutes mid-day, could be double that when you'd be going to to work. I'd visit schools in any area you think you might like to live in. And ask lots of questions -- people are very friendly.

Good luck.

[Regor]

We are looking at buying a house between Kona and Hilo but are wondering what we should expect to pay a year for real estate property taxes for about a $200,000 home assessed at about the sale price or higher. At a rate of about 5% per 1,000 is it really about $10,000 estimated real estate property taxes per year? RetiringRegor

[Kabloink]

It's doubtful you would ever pay tax on the full property value. Hawaii has quite a few property tax exemptions.

[hotzcatz]

It isn't a percentage rate, it is a certain amount per every $1K of assessed value and there are two different rates, one for the buildings on the land and a different rate for the land. For residential properties this year, it is $7.10 per $1,000 of assessed building value and $8.10 per assessed value of the land.

So, if your house is assessed at $200K the tax on it would be $1,420. Figure the land value of half that of $100K then the land tax would be $810 for a total of $2,230. The numbers will probably vary, depending on what the values are assessed at, I'm just guessing about the values.

[hilobound]

Well i disagree with the assumption that Hilo could not support a wal-mart and K-mart. I would love to see the town expand a little because if you havent noticed the population keeps growing but the town does not. The town isnt expanding with the population thats why there is so much traffic and every isle is bursting with customers. I lived in an area half the size of Hilo and had a super target, super wal-mart, k-mart, Home depot, lowes, etc and they always had plenty of custormers but were not bursting at the seams. Maybe thats why i cant stand going to walmart. Its crazy. Like it or not but the county and the people need to stop complaining about why there taxes are so high and do something about it. When you have so many people that cant find jobs because the community isnt growing and then goes on some type of welfare but the state cant afford anything else but to raise taxes is stupid. The state is going to ruin itself. We are the second highest taxed per capita state in the united states because of the mismanagement from our elected officials. Thats why we cant afford schools to be opened, roads to be repaired, etc without raising taxes on the few who actually have a job or four. I do believe after this year we will be the highest taxed state in the united states and it will not be anyones fault but our own.